Prakash Pillai

Introduction

Mr Prakash Pillai has more than 20 years of experience advising on dispute resolution and international commercial arbitration across a multitude of areas, including corporate and commercial, trade and commodities, construction and engineering, and employment. As the Managing Director of Clasis LLC, he also represents clients in commercial litigation matters before the Singapore Courts.

In respect of international arbitration, Mr Pillai regularly appears before various arbitral tribunals in both ad-hoc arbitrations and arbitrations governed by the leading institutional rules, as well as in investor-state arbitrations and he has been recognised as a leading arbitration practitioner by multiple publications over many years. In addition, he is a specialist in India-related arbitrations, having advised and represented Indian clients for over two decades on matters throughout the geographical breadth of India, including in the states of Gujarat, Andhra Pradesh, Sikkim, Tamil Nadu, National Capital Region (Delhi), Orissa and Maharashtra. Mr Pillai is on the India Business Law Journal’s A-List for India-focused practitioners based outside India and Chambers & Partners APAC notes that Mr Pillai is “awesomely well connected with India”.

In respect of litigation, Mr Pillai regularly represents clients in commercial matters involving shareholder and contractual disputes, insurance, professional liability and fraud. His litigation experience also includes insolvency work, including court challenges to rehabilitation and liquidation proceedings, claims by liquidators against directors of the insolvent company and/ or third parties and clawback claims.

Mr Pillai speaks regularly at conferences and seminars focusing on international arbitration, and is a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators. Mr Pillai has been empanelled as “Arbitrator on the India International Arbitration Centre Panel of Arbitrators for Domestic Arbitration as an Eminent Person (having specialised knowledge and substantial relevant experience in the field of arbitration)”. He was also formerly an Adjunct Associate Professor of Law at the National University of Singapore, teaching international arbitration law and practice. An established legal author, he frequently writes and publishes articles on arbitration law and practice as well as on various facets of Indian political and socioeconomic life.

Mr Pillai graduated from Queen Mary College, University of London, and further obtained a Master’s degree in Law from Cambridge University, where he specialised in public international law, including investment treaty law. He was subsequently admitted as a Barrister-at-law at the Middle Temple in London and is qualified as an Advocate and Solicitor in Singapore. He previously worked at the Singapore Ministry of Foreign Affairs as a Foreign Service Officer and is the Honorary Consul of the Republic of Iceland in Singapore.

Areas of Interest and Expertise

• International Commercial Arbitration, with Special Focus on the Indian Market
• Commercial Litigation, including matters before the Singapore International Commercial Court with Special Focus on Indian Parties
• Investment Treaty Arbitration
• Public International Law