Introduction
Renato’s practices as arbitrator and counsel in international arbitration.
As arbitrator, Renato has worked as chair/president, wing member/party-appointed arbitrator, sole arbitrator and emergency arbitrator under most internationally used rules in all five continents in cases governed by common law and civil law. As an English barrister and Italian advocate, he brings to the table a thorough, hands-on understanding of both the common law and the civil law legal traditions. His practice as an arbitrator has a strong, but non-exclusive focus on construction, infrastructure, energy, oil and gas, joint ventures, company law, post-M&A arbitrations and arbitrations raising regulatory, competition or public policy issues. He has been one of the first practitioners to explore in depth the issues arising in arbitrations involving the application of competition law and other regulatory regimes. Because of his experience as a UK Government lawyer, he is well placed to arbitrate disputes where one State or State entity is a party or where public policy or governmental interests are at stake. In the construction sector, Renato has worked with most standard forms (including FIDIC, NEC, JCT) and bespoke contracts and is experienced in analysing and deciding delay, quantum and complex engineering issues. He has also a good understanding of accounting and economics. He is admitted to the following panels and lists of arbitrators: SIAC, DIAC, SCCA, Polish Chamber of Commerce, Lewiatan Court of Arbitration (Poland), Serbian Construction Dispute Resolution Centre and HKIAC. He is also admitted to the HKIAC panel of adjudicators. He is a member of the ICC Arbitration and ADR Commission, Italy, of the Board of the International Construction Law Association and of Africa Construction Law. He has served on the ICC Task Force on Dealing with Corruption Issues in International Arbitration and on the ICC Task Force on Dealing with Competition Issues in International Arbitration. He is Professor at King’s College London, where he is also the Director of the Centre of Construction Law and Dispute Resolution and the Co-director of the FIDIC Summer School.
Renato has a substantial experience as counsel in international arbitration in high-value cases of up to billions of USD across the whole spectrum of commercial disputes. He has a wide industry knowledge, including foreign investments, construction and engineering, steel and heavy industries, oil and gas, infrastructure, energy, IT and digital, IP, pharmaceuticals, transport, commodities, consumer goods and post-M&A arbitrations. He is a specialist in ICSID arbitration and ISDS more generally and has published widely on the subject. Aware of the multi-cultural dimension of many international disputes, he has worked across Europe, Africa, Asia, America and Australia under most internationally used arbitration rules (ICC, LCIA, SIAC, DIAC, CAM, UNCITRAL) and in purely ad hoc arbitrations. Because of his qualification as an Italian lawyer and his understanding of civil law systems, Renato has also worked in many arbitrations where the contract was governed by civil law, particularly in the Middle East and Gulf regions, in Latin America and in continental Europe. As counsel, Renato has developed a particular expertise in construction law and in the cross-examination of technical, delay and quantum experts. He has worked on cases involving bespoke contracts as well as most of the FIDIC forms, the NEC forms and many other standard forms.
