Personal bio
Walter (Fayun) Chen, FCIArb，FHKIArb, is S.C., partner at Grandall Law Firm. He is 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 a Member of Steering Committee & 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 and the Expert Member of the International Commercial Expert Committee of the Nanjing International Commercial Court, China. He is also a Member of Panel of Arbitrators of over 20 arbitration institutions (e.g. SIAC, HKIAC, KCAB, CIETAC, BIAC, SCIA). 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. Walter Chen has nearly 30 years of experience in advising clients domestic and foreign on litigation and non-litigation matters. He has a proven track record for representing and assisting clients in handling complex and high-profile (some even involves multi-billion dollars) 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 LMAA, SIAC, HKIAC, CIETAC, and the ICC International Court of Arbitration. The civil and commercial cases he represented concern disputes arising from cross-border investment, merger & acquisition, joint venture contracts, shareholder disputes, international trade, guarantee and swap transactions, construction and Infrastructure projects, sale & purchase etc. Since he was appointed as an arbitrator in 2000, Walter Chen has now served as an arbitrator for 24 years. Over the years, he sat as sole arbitrators, party-appointed arbitrators and presiding arbitrators in over 100 commercial cases in CIETAC, CMAC, HKIAC, DIFC-LCIA, BIAC, SCIA etc., applying among others UNCITRAL Arbitration Rules, HKIAC Rules, LCIA Rules, CIETAC Rules, BIAC Rules, SCIA Rules. Walter Chen is a regular speaker and moderator for numerous large legal conferences or seminars that involve CIETAC, HKIAC, ICC, SIAC, SCC etc. He is prolific in publishing legal theses. For three consecutive years from 2021 to 2023, Walter Chen was part of the three-member Editorial Board of ‘CDR-Essential Intelligence: THE BELT AND ROAD INITIATIVE’ published by Global Legal Group, UK, and co-author of the Chapter on China. Walter Chen 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. He was awarded by Legal Daily, China as one of the ‘Top Ten Lawyers of the Belt and Road’ and awarded by Lawyer Monthly, UK, as the “ Arbitration Lawyer of the Year (2022)” and “ Best Arbitration Lawyer of the Year (2023)”.