David Hunt

David’s practice focuses on international arbitration, with a particular focus on complex multijurisdictional cases.

David has deep experience dealing with challenging jurisdictions, acting as global counsel for his clients. He has also advised on a long-running series of disputes over the ownership and management of a Middle Eastern telecommunications company, acting on proceedings in the UAE, Dubai, Kuwait, Iraq, Lebanon, and the United States. David is a registered lawyer of the Dubai International Financial Centre. David also has extensive international experience acting for entities with regards to allegations of fraud and breach of contract, including acting in two separate accounting fraud and misrepresentation cases in Brazil. He has significant experience advising clients on investor-state disputes, as well as advising litigation funders.

A hands-on lawyer who focuses on helping clients with their most difficult and high-stakes problems, David has achieved a number of significant victories in the recognition and enforcement of judgments in his career. 

David has been recognized as a “Future Leader” in Who’s Who Legal’s guide to International Arbitration in 2024. WWL’s commentary notes that David is a “superstar,” an “outstanding lawyer and very strong on jurisdictional law,” as well as a “brilliant practitioner with strategic insight.”

David’s recent experience includes:

• Representing an investor in investor state proceedings against an Eastern European state relating to the restructuring of a bank, most recently acting as advocate in successfully dismissing the state’s primary jurisdictional objection
• Successfully defending a US$120 million claim in ICC arbitration arising out of a subscription agreement
• Representing the majority investors in a major telecoms company in a joint venture dispute with US$2 billion in dispute; the interconnected proceedings include several DIFC-seated ICC arbitrations, a Beirut-seated arbitration and numerous ancillary court proceedings in the DIFC and New York
• Representing a major gaming company in two LCIA arbitrations against a state for breach of its contractual obligations
• Representing a Brazilian consumer goods company in ICC proceedings relating to alleged fraud in the sale of one of its business divisions

Co-author, Damage to submarine cables: claims and remedies, Developing Telecoms (May 2024)

Co-author, Is the People’s Good the Highest Law? The Concept of Necessity in Investor-State Protections, Global Arbitration Review (October 2023)

Planning for 2023: The Arbitration Disputes Landscape, The World Financial Review (March 2023)

Co-author, UK Supreme Court Settles Scope of Directors’ Duties to Creditors (October 2022)

Co-author, Is the People’s Good the Highest Law? The Concept of Necessity in Investor-State Protections, Global Arbitration Review (August 2022)

Co-author, The US Supreme Court Transforms 1782 Evidence Gathering (June 2022)

Space-Based Solar Power: A Disputes Minefield?, Global Legal Post (May 2022)

Okpabi v. Shell: The Future of Claims Against Parent Companies for Actions of Their Subsidiaries (March 2021)