Neil Kaplan
Brief Introduction
Neil Kaplan CBE QC SBS 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. These arbitrations have included a wide range of commercial, infrastructural and investment treaty disputes under the rules of the ICC, HKIAC, LCIA,
UNCITRAL, SIAC, SCC, ICSID and CIETAC. Mr. Kaplan has also presided over ad hoc arbitrations as well as bilateral investment treaty cases administered by the PCA.
Called to the Bar of England and Wales in 1965, Neil has practised 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.
In June 2001 Neil 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.
As a result of his contribution to the development and growth of arbitration in Hong Kong, Neil is often described as “the
father of Hong Kong arbitration”. (See C. Bao and F. Lautenschlager (eds.), Arbitrators’ Insights – Essays in Honour of
Neil Kaplan, Sweet & Maxwell 2012, at p. 17, and V. Chong, “The Father of Hong Kong Arbitration”, The Hong Kong
Lawyer, December 2012, at pp. 15-24.)
From 1991 until 2004, he was Chairman of the Hong Kong International Arbitration Centre, and in 1999-2000 he was President of the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators. Since 1995, he has been a Council Member and now Governing Board Member of the International Council of Commercial Arbitration (ICCA) and in 2012 he became a Member of the ICC International Court of Arbitration. He is a Chartered Arbitrator and a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators, the
Hong Kong Institute of Arbitrators and the Singapore Institute of Arbitrators. Additionally, he is a panellist of several other arbitral institutions including CIETAC.
Neil has published a number of books, articles and chapters in books.
In addition to conducting arbitrations in England and Hong Kong, Mr. Kaplan has also conducted arbitrations in: USA, France, Germany, Croatia, The Netherlands, Malaysia, Vietnam, Korea, Laos, Japan, Thailand, Singapore, The Phillipines, China, Dubai, Australia, Denmark, Sweden, Indonesia, South Africa.