Tomas Vail

Personal Bio

Job Title: Principal, Vail Dispute Resolution

Areas of Expertise: Arbitration

Tomas Vail is an international counsel and arbitrator based in London, with over a decade of arbitration experience.

Fluent in Russian, French and English, he is recognised as a leading arbitration practitioner (Who’s Who Legal: Arbitration – Future Leaders 2020 and 2021) and a leading practitioner of investor-state arbitration (Legal 500 UK Dispute Resolution 2019). Mr Vail has served in leadership positions of several prominent arbitration organisations and initiatives, including as an Advisory Board member of the Institute for Transnational Arbitration. He serves as a legal specialist to the American Bar Association’s Rule of Law Initiative and in this capacity presented to the Supreme Court of Kazakhstan on matters of investment treaty arbitration.

Mr Vail is a Member of the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators and is listed on the arbitrator databases of the LCIA, ICC, SCC, KCAB, VIAC and the Russian Arbitration Center. He regularly speaks and publishes on aspects of international arbitration and public international law. His recent writings include two book chapters: one on the Brčko Arbitration, in a book on non-state actors under international law (Nijhoff Brill); and a second on tribunal-appointed experts, in a commentary on the UNCITRAL Model Law (Cambridge University Press).

Further to his role as arbitrator, Mr Vail has represented clients throughout the world, most frequently in Russia and the CIS, Eastern Europe and Africa, conducting disputes under the LCIA, ICC, ICSID and UNCITRAL rules and related court litigation. He has particular experience of the petroleum and mining industries, advising on high-value disputes between energy companies and states/state-owned entities. Mr Vail’s experience includes independently negotiating aspects of multi-billion dollar disputes and settlements at the highest levels of government, on behalf of both states and investors. He also has experience of complex disputes in the telecommunications, financial services, commodities, consumer goods and manufacturing sectors, including joint-venture and post-M&A disputes.