Neil Kaplan CBE QC SBS, International Arbitrator
Called to the Bar of England and Wales in 1965, Neil Kaplan CBE QC SBS has practiced as a barrister, Principal Crown Counsel at the Hong Kong Attorney General’s Chambers, and served as a Judge of the Supreme Court of Hong Kong in charge of the Construction and Arbitration List. Mr. Kaplan has been a full-time practising arbitrator since 1995. During this period he has been involved in several hundred arbitrations as co-arbitrator, sole arbitrator or chairman in England and Hong Kong, but also in the USA, Canada, France, Germany, Croatia, Austria, Philippines, China, Laos, Japan, The Netherlands, Malaysia, Australia, Denmark, Sweden and South Africa. These arbitrations have included a wide range of commercial, infrastructure and investment disputes, under the auspices of all the major institutions such as the ICC, HKIAC, LCIA and SIAC. Mr. Kaplan’s investment treaty cases under ICSID and UNCITRAL both as presiding arbitrator and co-arbitrator have involved, among others, Hungary, Indonesia, Timor-Leste, Hungary, Croatia, Vietnam, Cambodia, Ecuador, India and Iran. Often referred to as the “Father of Hong Kong arbitration”, Mr. Kaplan was Chairman of the HKIAC from 1991 to 2004, and he was president of the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators from 1999 to 2000. Since 1995, he has been a Council Member and now Governing Board Member of the International Council of Commercial Arbitration (ICCA). Between 2012 and 2016, Mr. Kaplan was also a Member of the ICC International Court of Arbitration. He is a Chartered Arbitrator and a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators. He is a panelist of several other arbitral institutions including CIETAC. In June 2001, Mr Kaplan was awarded a CBE for services to international arbitration. In 2007, he was awarded the Silver Bauhinia Star by the Chief Executive of the Hong Kong SAR. Since 2017, Mr Kaplan has been the president of the Court of the Mauritius Chamber of Commerce and Industry’s International Arbitration and Mediation Centre (MARC). On 26 August 2018, Mr. Kaplan has been appointed as a member of the International Commercial Expert Committee to the Chinese Supreme People’s International Commercial Court. Mr Kaplan has written and edited several books on arbitration as well as having written numerous articles and delivered many lectures including the 6th Goff Lecture and the first Harbour Lecture in Hong Kong. He teaches at the City University of Hong Kong as well as giving guest lectures elsewhere.