Tim Yimin Liu, FCIArb, mainly works on China domestic and cross-border dispute resolution arising from corporate governance, shareholder rights, complex commercial, merger and acquisition, liquidation and bankruptcy, etc.  Tim’s practices include parallel litigation, international commercial arbitration and mediation, seeking or rejecting recognition and enforcement of awards, setting aside awards before state courts.  Tim is also involved in cross border bankruptcy and assets recovery in various jurisdictions.

His cases are from the jurisdictions such as several states of the USA, China, the UK, the UAE (DIFC and ADGM), the KSA, Qatar, Turkey, Egypt, Israel, Kazakhstan, ASEAN, India, Australia and New Zealand.

Tim works in the capacity as legal counsel advocating for client’s interest, as neutral professional assessing a case before formal proceedings, or as arbitrator, mediator or expert as appointed by the parties or nominated by the relevant institutions.

Industries related to Tim’s practices include insurance, defense and security, electric power projects, construction, life science, materials and manufacturing, the Internet and the Internet of Things, private investment funds and digital assets, etc.

Tim has been practicing law since 2002.  He worked with Mori Hamada & Matsumoto, Morrison & Foerster LLP, Heller Ehrman LLP, Nixon Peabody LLP, Clifford Chance LLP, also with Accenture as in-house legal counsel / director on complex digital and capital deals. 

Tim worked for Byte Dance, Goldman Sachs, Goldman Sachs Gao Hua, Nomura Securities, Invesco, Invesco Great Wall Fund Management, Soft Bank, Lenovo, Accenture, Nestlé, Shanghai Electric, China Continental Insurance, Amazon, UPS, State Grid, Mitsubishi Heavy Industry, All Ride, Jing Gong Steel International, etc.

• Represented a defendant / supplier, a Chinese company in a foreign litigation, to structure a parallel litigation under China’s jurisdiction where it switches its position as plaintiff. These parallel litigations may contradict to each other nevertheless it would be in the interests of the client to certain extent
• Represented a defendant argued the issue about whether crypto currency would be a legitimate consideration of delivering certain on-job services and employment relationship under China’s legal regime
• Represented a defendant / land developer argued an over-limit inappropriate assets preservation order granted by a Chinese court pursuant to the petition by a claimant / contractor in a China seated arbitration
• Represented a defendant / supplier, as co-counsel with foreign counsels, to defend a case where the issue was about the validity of a letter of award and liabilities over an abandoned cross border equipment supply contract under a foreign governing law
• Represented a Chinese plaintiff / buyer against two foreign defendants / sellers with domiciles from different foreign jurisdictions in a Chinese court in absence of a written international supply contract
• Represented a claimant / plaintiff in a case started as arbitration but then leave for litigation in the Middle East; the disputes arose from construction steel structure international supply and erection contracts
• Represented a foreign plaintiff to claim remedies after a failure of a cross-border investment (criminal settlement, civil litigation, and domestic arbitration)
• Represented a plaintiff to claim remedies against a private investment fund manager, trustee bank (entrusted investment, negligence of the fund manager and trustee bank, warehouse receipt pledge)
• Assisted a client (an Internet of Things supplier to smart power grid) to optimize its corporate governance and alignment of interests among investors after the target company’s private equity financing
• Assisted foreign and Chinese partners to set up a joint venture in digital technology in China
• Assisted to mediate a data leak incident among a data controller, data processor and their ultimate client
• Arbitrated travel related disputes under the 1996 UK Arbitration Act

Admissions and Bars

• People’s Republic of China
• Washington D.C., USA
• New York State, USA
• Astana International Financial Centre Court, the Republic of Kazakhstan, Lawyer, Full Right of Audience
• Dubai International Financial Centre Court, UAE, Legal Practitioner, Full Right of Audience
• Singapore International Commercial Court, Foreign Registered Lawyer, Full Registration

Accreditations

• Fellow (FCIArb): Chartered Institute of Arbitrators, U.K.
• Fellow (FPD): Prime Dispute, U.K.
• Fellow (FHKIArb): Hong Kong Institute of Arbitrators
• Fellow (FAMINZ): Arbitrators’& Mediators’ Institute of New Zealand (2019~2021)
• Fellow (FMIArb): The Malaysian Institute of Arbitrators
• Fellow at Arbitration Practice (FAP-KFCRI): Kovise Foundation Conflict Resolution International, India

Panel Admission

• Arbitrator: Shanghai Arbitration Commission
• Mediator: Shenzhen Qianhai Court
• Primary Panel of Arbitrator: Maldives International Arbitration Centre
• Panel of Arbitrators, Mediator, Commercial Negotiator: Prime Dispute, U.K.
• Panel of Arbitrator, Mediators: Saudi Center for Commercial Arbitration, Saudi Arabia
• Panel of Arbitrator: BVI International Arbitration Centre
• Prime Panel of Arbitrator: Maldives International Arbitration Center
• Panel of Arbitrators: Beihai Arbitration Commission, China
• Panel of Arbitrators: Beihai Court of International Arbitration, China

• MBA in Finance (F.MBA.): Cheung Kong Graduate School of Business, Beijing / Hong Kong
• Master of Laws (LL.M.): New York University School of Law, U.S.A.
• Bachelor of Laws (LL.B.): Tsinghua University School of Law, China

• The Legal 500: 2022 Recommended Litigator / Insurance
• Lexology Client Choice 2021 Award, Data Privacy Protection / China

Social Activities

• Charted Institute of Arbitrators, East Asia Branch, Committee Member
• ICC China Initiative on UN Model Law of Electronic Transferable Records, Expert Member
• The 18th CIETAC Cup International Commercial Arbitration Moot Competition (Willem C. Vis China National Round), Arbitrator
• The 2nd CIETAC Cup Investment Arbitration Moot Competition (Frankfurt Investment Arbitration Moot Court China National Round), Presiding Arbitrator
• 2021 Shenzhen FDI Moot, Arbitrator
• NYU Shanghai, Mentor

Professional Memberships

• Federal Bar Association, U.S.A.
• Washington D.C. Bar Association, U.S.A.
• New York State Bar Association, U.S.A.
• New York City Lawyers Association, Committee on Asian Practice, U.S.A.
• International Association of Privacy Professionals (IAPP)
• Dubai International Arbitration Centre, DIAC 40
• Shanghai Bar Association, Committee of Maritime Laws, China
• Alumni Association of New York University, U.S.A.

• Tim regularly writes commentaries for Lexology about litigation in China, which can be found by this Link.
• Tim Yimin Liu, Does a Right to a Physical Hearing Exit in International Arbitration? – China Report, ICCA, March 2021
• Tim Yimin Liu, Your BPO Supplier is About to Working from Home – Mediation in BPO Disputes Adaptive to post COVID-19 Era, Page 26, The ACICA Review, June 2020
• Tim Yimin Liu, Will COVID-19 Impact Offtake Contract in Oil & Gas Industry? (in Chinese), 2020
• Tim Yimin Liu, US Tariffs and Export Administration Regulations – Impacts on China (in Chinese), 2019
• Tim Yimin Liu, You May Not Fly Your Drone as You Wish (in Chinese), 2019
• Tim Yimin Liu, A New Start of Sino-US Relationship: understanding Office of Foreign Assets Control of US Department of Treasury (in Chinese), 2019
• Tim Yimin Liu, Data: Assets More Than Compliance (in Chinese), August 2018
• Member of Clifford Chance Investment Funds team, The Internationalization of the RMB: Boosting the Prosperity of Hong Kong’s RMB Market, October 2010
• Member of Clifford Chance Investment Funds team, China for Hedge Fund Managers - A Regulatory and Tax Update, August 2010
• Member of Tsinghua Law School research assistant team for the World Bank, Developing Institutional Investors in the People’s Republic of China, the World Bank 2003 Country Report, 2003