Ravi Aswani

Practice Areas

Ravi Aswani is a commercial dispute resolution barrister. He has a broad practice which covers a range of areas including in particular shipping and international trade, banking and finance, commodities, construction, energy, insurance and re-insurance, and various international consortia and joint venture agreements. As well as litigation in the English courts (primarily the Commercial Court), Ravi has an extensive international arbitration practice. He has been instructed in arbitrations seated in several jurisdictions, both ad hoc arbitrations (in particular under LMAA rules and UNCITRAL rules) as well as institutional arbitrations (in particular ICC, LCIA and SIAC). Recent arbitrations he has been instructed on have been seated in Kosovo, Mauritius, New York, Qatar and Singapore, as well as in England.

Increasingly, Ravi is instructed in arbitrations arising out of contracts governed by a law other than English law. Recent arbitrations he has been instructed on have involved consideration of Ghanaian law, Malaysian law and Singaporean law, as well as English law.

Ravi has extensive experience of hybrid and remote hearings across a range of platforms, including across multiple time zones and asynchronous hearings.

A considerable proportion of Ravi’s work involves him being instructed without a leader against KCs, SCs and SAs in various jurisdictions. He has significant experience of acting without a leader against senior silks, as well as of acting as co-counsel with foreign lawyers from both civil law and common law jurisdictions.

Career

Called to Bar of England and Wales 2000, Lincoln’s Inn.

Judicial assistant to Sir Andrew Morritt VC and Lord Phillips MR, 2001-2002.

CEDR Accredited Mediator 2009.

Chartered Institute of Arbitrators (MCIArb), 2012.

Deputy District Judge (general civil authorisation, 2013; specialist chancery and bankruptcy and insolvency authorisation, 2020).

ICC Global Commission on Arbitration and ADR (UK Member), 2019.

Inaugural member of the panel of arbitrators and mediators of the London Chamber of Arbitration and Mediation (LCAM), 2020.

Professional Memberships

Arbitration Ireland, Association Internationale des Jeunes Avocats, British Maritime Law Association, Bar Standards Board Religion and Belief Task Force, Chartered Institute of Arbitrators (MCIArb), Commercial Bar Association, FDI International Moot Competition (College of Arbitrators), ICC Global Commission on Arbitration and ADR (UK Member), Indian Maritime Association (UK), International Bar Association, International Council for Commercial Arbitration, Inter-Pacific Bar Association, London Common Law and Commercial Bar Association, LCIA European Users’ Council, LMAA Supporting Member, Scottish Arbitration Centre, Singapore Chamber of Maritime Arbitration – Individual Member, Worshipful Company of Arbitrators (Freeman).

Publications

An early adopter of social media for business purposes, Ravi has a large following within the dispute resolution community (and beyond) on LinkedIn.

Personal

Ravi has a longstanding interest in matters of equality, diversity (especially intersectional), inclusion and belonging, and has over the years attended numerous cross-sector and cross-discipline advanced training events and seminars on these topics, observing considerable changes in thinking and practice over that time. Ravi also has a keen interest in mentoring and assisting the next generation of practitioners. He has participated in mentoring programmes run by Young ICCA (2018-2022), UCL (2019-2024) and others, sat in many moots, and is a Chambers' pupil supervisor. He is also often sought out informally for mentorship and career guidance by aspiring / junior practitioners. He has sat on the E&D Committee in Chambers for over 20 years.

Industry Sector Expertise

Ravi additionally has a growing arbitrator and mediator practice. In recent years he has received several arbitrator nominations / appointments in both institutional arbitrations (LCIA and ICC) as well as ad hoc arbitrations (primarily LMAA). He is a CEDR accredited mediator, a freeman of the Worshipful Company of Arbitrators, and a Member of the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators. He is a member of the ICC Global Commission on Arbitration and ADR, representing the UK. Ravi has sat as a deputy district judge in the County Court since 2013 in general civil matters, and in 2020 received an authorisation to hear specialist chancery / bankruptcy and insolvency matters.

Expert in these Jurisdictions

Ravi has a broad domestic and international client base and has developed particular links across the Middle East and Asia Pacific, as well as throughout the UK and Europe.

Ravi has an extensive international arbitration practice. He has been instructed in arbitrations seated in several jurisdictions, both ad hoc arbitrations (in particular under LMAA rules and UNCITRAL rules) as well as institutional arbitrations (in particular ICC, LCIA and SIAC). Recent arbitrations he has been instructed on have been seated in Kosovo, Mauritius, New York, Qatar and Singapore, as well as in England.

Ravi is regularly instructed to provide expert evidence on English law for use in foreign courts and arbitral tribunals. He frequently speaks at conferences on subjects arising out of his practice areas, both in the UK and abroad.

Work Highlights

Recent representative arbitrations include: related GAFTA arbitrations (and related Commercial Court proceedings) arising out of a prohibition on export imposed by the Government of India to preserve domestic food security, an SIAC arbitration (Singapore seat, Singapore law) relating to the purchase of a large quantity of iron ore, an LMAA arbitration arising out of a long term high value freight forwarding contract (English seat, English law); an LCIA arbitration arising out of the resignation of the former CEO of a multinational business; an UNCITRAL arbitration arising out of a mining joint venture (Kosovo seat, English law); an LMAA arbitration (English seat, English law) raising questions of illegality under a foreign law; an ICC arbitration (English seat, Ghanaian law) arising out of contracts for the construction of hospitals; an SIAC arbitration (Singapore seat, Malaysian law) arising out of the moving to a new position of a large jack up oil rig; an LCIA arbitration (English seat, English law) arising out of alleged breach of loan facility agreement and ancillary guarantee; and two substantial and very high profile LOF arbitrations arising out fires on very large container ships.

Recent representative litigation includes multi-million dollar litigation in the Commercial Court on behalf of charterers in claims for alleged long-term failures to service charterparty obligations.

Languages Spoken

Gujarati.