Speaker details

Biography

Bernhard specialises in commercial and investment treaty arbitration, with a particular focus on the natural resources and technology industries. He also represents clients in contentious and non-contentious public international law matters, sits as an arbitrator and is involved in a number of business and human rights initiatives. Bernhard is a member of the UK Attorney General’s C Panel of Public International Law Counsel to the Crown and an adjunct professor in Cyberlaw and disputes in cyberspace at King’s College London. Highlights of Bernhard’s practice include successfully acting for a party in a multibillion-dollar ICSID arbitration pertaining to the mining industry, representing a Caribbean state in a high-profile investment treaty claim involving international environmental law and securing a win for a publicly listed medical devices manufacturer in a €500m LCIA arbitration. Bernhard has acted for claimant and respondent parties in a wide range of investment treaty and commercial arbitration matters (including under the Energy Charter Treaty and ICSID, UNCITRAL, SIAC, ICC, LCIA, VIAC, DIS and AAA Rules), as well as related cross-border litigation and enforcement issues. Bernhard has also advised a P5 state on asserting its sovereign immunity before EU member state courts and tribunals and delivered practical training in international economic law to government officials of a number of States, including in Africa and the Middle East. Bernhard is recognised as a Future Leader in the Who’s Who Legal Arbitration 2022 Guide. He is also ranked as a Future Leader in the Who’s Who Legal Commercial Litigation 2021 Guide, which notes he is “a very smart litigation attorney” who is “deeply knowledgeable and technically skilled”. He is also recognised as one of five of the most highly regarded EMEA non-partners in Who’s Who Legal’s future leaders legal marketplace analysis.