Amendments to the Arbitration Ordinance, gazetted today, are the latest stage in the process to allow lawyers to charge based on success in an arbitration. The amendments, long-awaited by clients, passed Hong Kong’s legislative review quickly and without substantive amendment, demonstrating the strong support in the territory for these long-awaited changes. Hong Kong has enacted … Read more

Lawyers in Singapore are now able to enter into Conditional Fee Agreements (CFAs) in selected proceedings, including arbitration and certain Singapore International Commercial Court (SICC) proceedings. In January 2022, Singapore passed a bill to permit CFAs (see our post here). This bill came into effect on 4 May 2022, with the passing of the Legal … Read more

Hong Kong has officially published a Bill that would allow lawyers to agree outcome-based fees for arbitration work in the territory. If, as expected, the Bill passes into law later this year, it will allow lawyers in and outside Hong Kong to agree fees based on their clients’ success in the arbitration. This is a … Read more

On 7 December 2021, the Commercial Court in Tenke Fungurume Mining S.A. v Katanga Contracting Services S.A.S, [2021] EWHC 3301 (Comm), refused a challenge to an arbitral award brought on the basis of the tribunal’s award of the costs of third party funding to the successful party, finding that it did not constitute a serious … Read more

On 1 November 2021, a bill to permit Conditional Fee Arrangements (CFA) had its first reading in the Singapore Parliament. If the bill is passed, it will permit law firms and lawyers in Singapore to enter into CFAs with their clients in respect of certain types of disputes (whether relating to proceedings in Singapore or … Read more

From 28 June 2021, Singapore will permit third-party funding of domestic arbitration proceedings, proceedings in the Singapore International Commercial Court (SICC) and related mediation proceedings. Before this, Singapore permitted third-party funding for international arbitration proceedings and related court and mediation proceedings only (as reported in our blog post of January 2017). In making these changes, … Read more

In a recent post on our Public International Law Notes blog, Christian Leathley, Amal Bouchenaki, Florencia Villaggi and Louis Thivierge consider the UNCITRAL Secretariat’s initial draft provisions on the regulation of third-party funding in Investor-State Dispute Settlement, which presents various potential models that the Working Group on Investor-State Dispute Settlement Reform may adopt for regulating … Read more

The revised International Chamber of Commerce (ICC) 2021 Arbitration Rules have now come into force, applying to all ICC arbitrations commenced on or after 1 January 2021. The new rules are accompanied by a revised Note to Parties and Arbitral Tribunals on the Conduct of the Arbitration under the ICC Rules of Arbitration (dated 1 … Read more