Personal bio
Michael is a Counsel at Wilmer Cutler Pickering Hale and Dorr LLP in London, specialising in international commercial arbitration and investment treaty arbitration disputes. He regularly acts in high-value, complex disputes, including “bet-the-company” cases, where the outcome is critical to the client’s business.
Michael is dual qualified (England & Wales and New Zealand) and has experience in arbitrations under most of the leading institutional rules and in jurisdictions spanning Europe, Asia, The Americas, Africa and the Middle East. He also has experience advising governments and arbitral institutions on the drafting of arbitration legislation and rules including the arbitrateAD Arbitration Rules (shortlisted by GAR for “Best Development”). Michael was shortlisted for the Rising Star of the Year award (UK wide) at the 2024 British Legal Awards. In the latest GAR 100 ranking, sources singled out Michael “for the overall coordination, insights and strength of argument” in a recent arbitration, in which the firm’s performance was described as “high powered and extremely detailed.”
Michael formerly worked at Quinn Emanuel in London under the guidance of Stephen Jagusch KC and as an employed barrister at a leading set of chambers in New Zealand, Bankside Chambers, where he assisted Sir David A.R. Williams KNZM KC with his work as one of the world’s pre-eminent international arbitrators. Michael began his career as a criminal prosecutor.
Michael is a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators and was admitted as the youngest Fellow of the Arbitrators’ and Mediators’ Institute of New Zealand. He serves as an Advisory Board Member, Co-Chair of the Task Forces and Rules Committee Coordinator of the Hague Court of Arbitration for Aviation (shortlisted by GAR for “Best Development”). Michael also co-hosts the annual Africa Arbitration Academy's Flagship Training Programme at WilmerHale and has taught the International Commercial Arbitration Certification course at the Strathmore Dispute Resolution Centre in Kenya. He served as a co-founder of the pre-eminent group for young arbitration practitioners in New Zealand.
As well as his teaching duties as an Adjunct Professor of Comparative Law at Pepperdine University, he regularly speaks at conferences and workshops on issues relating to international arbitration, and his writing on arbitration and public international law topics has been published in leading peer-reviewed legal publications and has received awards.
Michael has a mixed Filipino-British heritage and is a dual national of the UK/NZ.