Linklaters has returned to a familiar hunting ground, Herbert Smith Freehills (HSF), to hire experienced arbitration partner Matthew Weiniger QC.
Fresh from defeating Singapore over a $1.2bn claim made against his client, Malaysia, Weiniger QC has resigned from Herbert Smith Freehills after 21 years at the firm. He will join a Linklaters disputes team that already boasts HSF alumni in Christa Band, who joined in 2009 and now sits on the partnership board as well as Gavin Lewis in Hong Kong and financial regulatory litigators Nikunj Kiri and Martyn Hopper, all of whom joined in 2013.
The London-based arbitration lawyer is set to join Linklaters towards the end of the summer, with an official date still to be arranged. He is currently handling a multibillion-dollar claim from Standard Chartered Bank over a claimed investment in a power plant near Dar es Salaam and a €90m claim for water company United Utilities against Estonia over changes to the country’s tariff mechanism.
Weiniger QC is well known for representing Eurotunnel in its successful claim against the French and UK governments for costs and expenses suffered from a security situation caused by asylum seekers trying to cross the English Channel. He made partner at Herbert Smith in 2003 and took silk in 2014. He lectures on arbitration and public international law and is a visiting professorial fellow at the Centre for Commercial Law Studies at Queen Mary, University of London.
A spokesperson for HSF said: ‘We can confirm that Matthew Weiniger is leaving. We thank him for his contribution to the development of our outstanding international arbitration practice and wish him well for the future.’
tom.moore@legalease.co.uk