LALIVE partner Michael E. Schneider appointed Vice-President of UNCITRAL

The United Nations Commission on International Trade Law (UNCITRAL) has appointed LALIVE partner Michael E. Schneider Vice-President, with immediate effect. His appointment followed a proposal by UNCITRAL’s Western European and Other States regional group – one of five groups within the commission which each represent different jurisdictions globally.

In his role as Vice-President of UNCITRAL, Michael E. Schneider worked closely with UNCITRAL President Francisco Reyes from Colombia during the ongoing session of the Commission in Vienna. In the year to come, his activity will relate essentially to UNCITRAL’s Working Group II on arbitration and conciliation, tasked with updating the Commission’s Notes on Organising Arbitral Proceedings and other tasks which the Commission will assign to the Working Group. His active involvement in UNCITRAL dates back many years, as observer of the ICC and ASA; since 2006 he was a member of the Swiss delegation and was elected by the Working Group to chair at its Sessions in New York and Vienna on the revision of the Arbitration Rules and now the Revision of the Notes.

Michael E. Schneider, co-founder of the firm and a highly regarded arbitration practitioner, has practised in international arbitration for more than 40 years, managing highly complex and high value disputes. He has acted as counsel and as arbitrator (chair, sole or co-arbitrator) both in ad hoc proceedings and under the rules of many institutions worldwide. His main areas of practice include disputes involving States and corporations in construction, industrial engineering and infrastructure projects, natural resources (in particular oil and gas), pharmaceuticals, telecommunications and investment disputes.

This prestigious appointment is a testimony of Michael E. Schneider’s outstanding career in international arbitration, along with other functions he has exercised over the years, including president of the Swiss Arbitration Association (ASA) from 2010 to 2013, vice chair of the ICC Commission on Arbitration until 2014, as well as a member of several of its working groups (1998 and 2012 revisions of the ICC rules, construction, pre-arbitral referee), member of the Board of Trustees of the Cairo Regional Centre for International Commercial Arbitration (CRCICA), Chairman of the IBA Committee on Construction (now International Construction Projects) and president elect of the International Academy of Construction Lawyers.

Please see the article in Global Arbitration Review.