Lawyer Monthly Legal Awards 2022 145 Partner at Grandall Law Firm Walter (Fayun) Chen, S.C. Walter (Fayun) Chen, is a partner at Grandall Law Firm, Senior Counsel (S.C.), Master of International Business Law at the University of Liverpool, Visiting Scholar at the University of Maryland, and further studied at the University of Hamburg. He is the Vice President of the UK Sub-Association of the Western Returned Scholars Association, China, a Member of the Arbitration and Mediation Committee of the All China Lawyers Association, the ICC China Arbitration Committee, the Steering Committee of the China Academy of Arbitration Law, and a Fellow of the Hong Kong Institute of Arbitrators (FHKIArb). He is also a Member of Panel of Arbitrators of more than 20 arbitration institutions (e.g. SIAC, HKIAC, CIETAC). He is one of the very few leading international commercial dispute resolution practitioners in China who can effectively handle cases in both English and Chinese as counsel and arbitrator. He has a proven track record for representing and assisting clients in handling complex and high-profile legal matters and commercial cases heard before courts in Mainland China, Hong Kong, the US and others, and in ad hoc arbitrations and arbitration institutions such as SIAC, HKIAC, CIETAC, and the ICC International Court of Arbitration. For two consecutive years from 2021 to 2022, Walter was part of the three-member Editorial Board of ‘CDREssential Intelligence: THE BELT AND ROAD INITIATIVE’ published by Global Legal Group, UK, and co-author of the chapter on China. He was respectively selected as one of the ‘Leading Talents of Foreign Related Lawyers’ by the All China Lawyers Association and the Ministry of Justice, China, and was awarded by Legal Daily, China as one of the first session ‘Top Ten Lawyers of the Belt and Road’. Walter is a partner in the Nanjing Office of Grandall Law Firm, one of the largest full-service law firms in China with over 1,900 lawyers and 4,500 employees across its 36 global offices. About Walter Chen In your nearly 30 years of arbitration experience, how have you seen the arbitration sector develop in China? With the rapid development of the Chinese economy, together with promulgation of the Arbitration Law of the People’s Republic of China in 1994, arbitration has become the most preferred vehicle to resolve international commercial disputes in China. Over the years, more than 250 local arbitration institutions in China have been established at the municipal level. The leading arbitration institutions in Mainland China include the China International Economic and Trade Arbitration Commission, the Beijing International Arbitration Centre and the Shenzhen Court of International Arbitration. What has been your most memorable achievement during this time? Since I represented Chinese client in my first international arbitration case in Hong Kong in the 1990s, I have grown into a veteran of arbitration after nearly 30 years of arbitration practice, not only acting as counsel in international arbitration cases, but also as an international arbitrator, hearing and adjudicating cases alongside my global arbitration counterparts. I have successfully represented Chinese client in the US and Hong Kong in a mega international arbitration case with a value of over RMB100 billion, and am representing Chinese client in Hong Kong in an international arbitration case with a value of over RMB10 billion. As an arbitrator, I have heard and decided nearly a hundred commercial arbitration cases. Therefore, my greatest achievement is that I have accumulated a wealth of practical experience in international arbitration, and I can, as counsel or arbitrator, handle international arbitration cases with ease and comfort in both English and Chinese. CHINA
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