Speakers' Profiles

Thomas So is a partner of Mayer Brown. He advises on shareholders- and equity-related disputes, propertyrelated litigation, libel litigation and media-related litigation work, and litigation and arbitration in the PRC. He represents banks and financial institutions, property developers and corporations as well as Mainland China enterprises on securities- and equity-related disputes.

Thomas has acted as Arbitrator and Mediator in shareholders and other disputes and is on a number of panel of arbitrators in Asia. He has also acted as Deputy Judge at the District Court (18/11/200213/12/2002) and Temporary Deputy Registrar at the High Court (8/12/2003-10/1/2004). He is a ChinaAppointed Attesting Officer (appointed by the Ministry of Justice of PRC). He was the President of the Law Society of Hong Kong (6/2016 – 6/2018) and is a solicitor-advocate with rights to appear in the higher courts in Hong Kong.

Thomas was praised by The Legal 500 Asia Pacific 2010/2011 for providing "sound knowledge" and "practical solutions" to clients. Chambers Asia Pacific 2011 describes Thomas is "instrumental in many cross-border cases". Thomas speaks English, Cantonese and Mandarin.

Robert S. Pé served as adviser on legal affairs to Aung San Suu Kyi from 2012 and later as an adviser to her government and its justice sector Coordinating Body after she took office in 2016. In those roles, he was heavily involved with efforts to strengthen the legal profession in Myanmar and to improve access to justice for the population at large.

Mr. Pé is a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators and a member of Arbitration Chambers in Hong Kong, London and New York. He was in private practice with major international law firms for over two decades and the Chambers legal directory described him as a “Top-flight” lawyer, who commands “the highest levels of respect in the market”. In 2014, his work in Myanmar received the American Lawyer’s pro bono award for Asia and in 2015 the Financial Times identified him as one of the most innovative lawyers in Asia. He has spoken on law reform in Myanmar at events hosted by the Asian Academy of International Law, Bingham Centre for the Rule of Law, Chatham House, Economist, Financial Times, Kobe University, University of Hong Kong and US Council on Foreign Relations.

Funke Adekoya San is a partner at ǼLEX, based in Lagos, Nigeria and Accra, Ghana where she heads the Dispute Resolution practice group. She is also a past First Vice President of the Nigerian Bar Association where her responsibilities included coordinating the activities of the legal profession in the protection of human rights.

She has over 40 years of experience in corporate dispute resolution and is a past Vice President of the African Users Council of the London Court of International Arbitration; a Governing Board member and immediate past Vice President of the International Council of Commercial Arbitration (ICCA) and a member of the Board of Trustees of the Cairo Regional Centre for International Commercial Arbitration.

Funke also sits on the World Bank Group Sanctions Board, which is the final decision maker in contested cases arising out of allegations of fraud, corruption, and collusion in World Bank Group-financed development operations.

Professor Albert Jan van den Berg is a partner at Hanotiau & van den Berg (Brussels, Belgium). He is a sought-after presiding and party-appointed arbitrator in numerous international commercial and investment arbitrations. He also acts as counsel in international commercial arbitrations. Professor van den Berg is Honorary President of the International Council for Commercial Arbitration, having served as President from 2014–2016. He is a Visiting Professor at Georgetown University Law Center, Tsinghua University School of Law, University of Miami School of Law, and National University of Singapore Faculty of Law; Emeritus Professor (Arbitration Chair) at Erasmus University, Rotterdam; and member of the faculty and the advisory board of the University of Geneva Master in International Dispute Settlement Program. He is Honorary President of the Netherlands Arbitration Institute, having served as its President and Secretary General, and former Vice-President of the London Court of International Arbitration. Professor van den Berg has published extensively on international arbitration (see www.hvdb.com), in particular, the New York Convention of 1958 (see www.newyorkconvention.org). His awards include: Global Arbitration Review, Best Prepared and Most Responsive Arbitrator in 2013; The International Who’s Who Legal, Arbitration: Lawyer of the Year in 2006, 2011 and 2017, and Arbitration: Global Elite Thought Leader. Email: ajvandenberg@hvdb.com

Hans van Loon is an independent international consultant. He is the former Secretary General of the Hague Conference on Private International Law (1996- 2013) and a member of the Institut de Droit International. Having practiced law before the Supreme Court of the Netherlands, he joined the Hague Conference in 1978. As Secretary General he steered the Conference through a period of rapid expansion of its Membership (including that of the European Union), and of States party to Hague Conventions, as well as the establishment of regional offices for Latin America and the Caribbean, in Buenos Aires, and for the Asia- Pacific Region, in Hong Kong. During his time as Secretary General, the Conference saw a fast growth of its legislative work and its monitoring, support and assistance activities concerning the implementation and practical operation of Hague Conventions. Mr Van Loon has been involved in the development of over a dozen Hague Conventions, as well as the revision of the Conference’s Statute. He has lectured worldwide and widely published on numerous topics of (private) international law, stressing the role of private international law in its social and its global context, and as a discipline bridging legal cultures while respecting their diversity.

Winnie Tam SC, SBS, JP is a barrister, international arbitrator and mediator practicing from Des Voeux Chambers in Hong Kong. Ms. Tam was appointed “Senior Counsel” in 2006 and a Recorder of the Court of First Instance of the High Court of HKSAR since 2016. She served as Chairman of the Hong Kong Bar Association between 2015 to 2017, and currently chairs the Hong Kong Bar Association’s Committee on Intellectual Property.

Ms Tam holds qualifications to practise in England and Wales, Singapore and Australian Capital Territory. Her practice area is commercial dispute resolution and international arbitration, with particular expertise in intellectual property. Apart from practicing in IP and general civil disputes as a barrister-advocate, Ms Tam has been engaged as presiding arbitrator and co-arbitrator in a wide variety of commercial disputes administered under HKIAC, UNCITRAL, ICC, CIETAC and SCIA rules conducted in English and in Chinese. Winnie is a sought-after speaker in international conferences on alternative dispute resolution. She is a WIPO panel mediator, a CEDR-accredited mediator, a panel mediator on Mainland-Hong Kong Investment Disputes under CEPA, a JAMS panel mediator, and a JAMS/SCMC Joint Panel Mediator.

Ms. Tam has been decorated for her years of public service in Hong Kong. She currently chairs the Communications Authority, and is a member of the Law Reform Commission, the CE’s Council of Advisors on Strategic Development and Innovation, the West Kowloon Cultural District Board, and the Board of Governors of the HK Phil.

Educated at Beijing Foreign Language Studies University (B.A) and Columbia University School of Law (LL.M. S.J.D.), she worked in the Law and Treaty Department of the Foreign Ministry of China from 1980 to 2003, as Director-General (1999-2003). She was elected to the International Law Commission in 2002 and worked as a member till 2010. She was one of the first female members and first Chairwoman of the Commission (2010). She was posted in 2003 to the Kingdom of the Netherlands as the Chinese Ambassador and the Permanent Representative to the Organization on the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons. After four and half years of diplomatic service there, she was appointed the first Chinese Ambassador to ASEAN and Legal Counsel of the Foreign Ministry. She held a number of positions at law societies and legal institutions such as the Vice-President of the Chinese Society of International Law (1997-2013), President of the Asian Society of International Law (2009-2011), member of the Hague Academy Curatorium (2010-2016), member and President (since 2019) of the Institute of International Law. She taught and lectured on public international law at a number of universities and law schools in China and abroad. She holds an Honorary Doctor of Law from Macao University. Her publications on public international law are extensive, both in Chinese and English. Apart from numerous articles on various subjects of public international law, her books include Transboundary Damage in International law, (2003); Chinese Contemporary Perspectives on International Law— history, culture and international Law, (2011); Jurisdiction of the International Court of Justice, (2017). She was elected to the International Court of Justice in 2010 and Vice-President of the Court in 2018.

Makhdoom Ali Khan is a Senior Advocate of the Supreme Court of Pakistan, and former Attorney General for Pakistan.

He read law at Karachi, Cambridge, the London School of Economics and Political Science and Lincoln’s Inn.

During his tenure as Attorney General, he advised the Government of Pakistan on investment treaty and public international law issues. He led BIT negotiations with other states. He was involved in drafting the laws that incorporated the New York Convention and the ICSID Convention in Pakistan law.

He was a member of the court of LCIA, a member of the Board of DIAC and AAA. He was Vice Chair of the Arbitration Committee of IBA. He is a Fellow of The International Academy of Trial Lawyers and a member of the Governing Body of ICCA.

Additionally, he is on the Advisory Board of the Bahrain Chamber for Dispute Resolution, on the panels of arbitrators of SIAC, the KLRC for Arbitration, the Shanghai International Arbitration Centre, the MIAC and ICSID.

He has appeared in many important commercial and constitutional cases before the Supreme Court of Pakistan. He is sitting as an arbitrator in several ad hoc and institutional commercial and investment arbitrations.

Mr Justice Hartmann became a Non-Permanent Judge of the Court of Final Appeal in 2010.

Mr Justice Hartmann was born in India in 1944. He graduated with an LLB from the University of London (obtained at University College of Rhodesia, an external college of London) in 1967. In 1971, he was admitted as an attorney, notary public and conveyancer in Zimbabwe.

Mr Justice Hartmann joined the Hong Kong Legal Department in 1983 as a Crown Counsel. He was appointed Senior Crown Counsel in 1984 and Deputy Principal Crown Counsel in 1989. He joined the Hong Kong Judiciary as a District Judge in 1991, was appointed a Judge of the Court of First Instance in 1998. From 2008 to 2012, he served as a Justice of Appeal.

Mr Justice Hartmann was awarded the Gold Bauhinia Star in 2012.

Professor Nico J. Schrijver is State Councillor, Council of State, the Netherlands, part-time Professor of International Law at Leiden University and Visiting Professor of the EU and Co-operation with Developing Countries at Université libre de Bruxelles. Previously, he was a Senator and Chair of its Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs and also served as President of the Academic Council on the United Nations System, the International Law Association and the Institut de Droit international. He has published extensively on the UN, including Development Without Destruction. The UN and Global Resource Management (2010) and co-edited volumes on The Security Council and the Use of Force (2005) and Elected Members of the Security Council. Lame ducks or key players? (2020).

Mr Justice Cheung was appointed a Permanent Judge of the Court of Final Appeal on 25 October 2018.

Mr Justice Cheung was born and educated in Hong Kong. He read law at the University of Hong Kong, obtaining a Bachelor of Laws degree in 1983 and a Postgraduate Certificate in Laws in 1984. In 1985, he obtained a Master of Laws degree from Harvard Law School. He was called to the Hong Kong Bar in the same year, and in 1995 he was admitted as an advocate and solicitor of the Supreme Court of Singapore.

Mr Justice Cheung was in private practice in Hong Kong before joining the Judiciary as a District Judge in June 2001. He started sitting as a Deputy High Court Judge in December 2001 and was appointed a Judge of the Court of First Instance of the High Court in 2003. Mr Justice Cheung was made the Probate Judge in 2004 and the Judge in charge of the Constitutional and Administrative Law List in 2008. In 2011, he was appointed the Chief Judge of the High Court and became the President of the Court of Appeal of the High Court.

Mr Justice Cheung is a member of the Judicial Officers Recommendation Commission which makes recommendations to the Chief Executive on judicial appointments. He is a member of the Law Reform Commission. He also chairs or is a member of various committees and working parties within the Judiciary.

Mr Justice Cheung is an Honorary Bencher of Lincoln’s Inn.