Profile

Michael Polkinghorne has a broad range of experience in arbitration and litigation in the areas of energy, project finance, construction, infrastructure, telecoms and defense procurement. He has served as counsel and arbitrator in arbitrations conducted under most major institutional rules. While he has covered disputes arising in many different countries, his current practice concentrates on Eastern Europe and the CIS, as well as South and South East Asia, where he lived and worked in the late 1990s. He has significant expertise in the area of foreign direct investment, and acting for and against states.

Mr. Polkinghorne also has a significant transactional practice, advising clients in the energy and infrastructure development fields. He has advised a number of petroleum clients on projects in South East Asia, the Russian Federation and North Africa and has advised the governments of India, Yemen and Mozambique on energy-related matters. He is presently a member of the Legal Advisory Task Force of the European Energy Charter Secretariat, a body which is currently preparing a new edition of the Model Intergovernmental and Host Government Agreements for Cross-Border Pipelines.

Admitted to practice in both common law and civil law jurisdictions, Mr. Polkinghorne is presently the alternate Australian member of the ICC’s International Court of Arbitration (where he is currently also a member of their Taskforce on reducing costs in complex arbitrations).