His experience

Nicolas specialises in international commercial and investment arbitration with a focus on corporate, joint venture, IP, sales and distribution as well as the life sciences, energy, technology, construction and infrastructure sectors. He is highly experienced with arbitration in or in relation to the US, Europe and Asia, and there specifically to Korea, Japan, China, Hong Kong and Singapore as well as numerous other Asian jurisdictions.

Having lived and worked for many years in both civil law (Germany, Switzerland) and common law (Hong Kong, Singapore, California, New York,  Australia) jurisdictions, Nicolas is experienced in handling cases under both legal traditions. He has so far acted in more than 140 international arbitrations under all major arbitration rules and governed by a broad range of different substantive laws. He also acted in investment disputes and other disputes involving states and state-owned enterprises.

Arbitrator experience

Alongside his work as a party representative, Nicolas is a very experienced arbitrator. To date, he has sat in 42 cases covering a wide range of both civil and common law jurisdictions, including Korea, Japan, Hong Kong, Singapore, PRC, Germany, Switzerland, California, New York, Thailand, Vietnam, Malaysia, UAE, Kuwait, Qatar, Mongolia, Sri Lanka and others. His cases are seated at the major arbitration hubs worldwide. 

His background

Nicolas joined CMS in 2006 and was made partner in 2013. In 2009/2010, he was seconded to Clayton Utz in Sydney. He has been head of the CMS Hong Kong presence and the firm’s arbitration practice in the Asia-Pacific region for almost a decade. In January 2020, he has been appointed as co-head for the firm's dispute resolution practice, and in January 2024, Nicolas has also become the head of the firm's US representative office and arbitration practice. 

Nicolas is regularly engaged as a speaker at international arbitration conferences and he runs training courses for arbitral institutions.