Benjamin Hughes

Practice Areas

International Arbitration & Dispute Resolution

Career

Professor Benjamin Hughes is an independent arbitrator, adjunct professor at the National University of Singapore Faculty of Law, a member of the Court of Arbitration of the Singapore International Arbitration Centre and a member of the Investment Committee of Omni Bridgeway. Previously, Professor Hughes was a member of the faculty at Seoul National University Law School, the founding co-chair of the international dispute resolution practice group at one of Korea’s largest full-service law firms and a member of the international arbitration team at Shearman & Sterling in the US and Singapore. Since leaving law firm practice in 2013, he has been appointed in over 200 arbitrations with several billion dollars in dispute.

Professional Memberships

Professional Affiliations:

• Adjunct professor at the National University of Singapore Faculty of Law

• Member of the Court of Arbitration of the Singapore International Arbitration Centre

• Member of the Investment Committee of Omni Bridgeway

• Editorial board member of the Asian International Arbitration Journal, the Korea Arbitration Review, and the Journal of Korean Law

• Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators, the Singapore Institute of Arbitrators, and the College of Commercial Arbitrators

Academic Distinctions:

• Dean Robert McKay Scholar, NYU School of Law

• Global Legal Fellow, NYU School of Law (Buenos Aires, Argentina)

• Rotary Ambassadorial Scholarship, Korea (SNU College of Law)

• SNU Academic Scholarship, SNU College of Law

• Harvard-Yenching Institute Fellowship, Harvard University

• Fulbright Grantee, Korea

• President’s Academic Scholarship, Trinity University

Languages Spoken

English, Korean, Spanish, and limited Mandarin

Experience

Professor Hughes’ experience as arbitrator spans a broad range of commercial disputes, including joint venture and shareholder disputes, intellectual property and licensing, media and telecommunications, software and computer gaming, medical and biotech, pharmaceuticals, construction and infrastructure projects, energy and resources, shipping and shipbuilding, automobile and heavy machinery manufacturing, agency and distributorship agreements, aviation, military acquisition and procurement contracts, sale of goods and general commercial disputes.

Professor Hughes has served as presiding arbitrator, co-arbitrator and sole arbitrator in over 200 international commercial arbitrations.  He has been appointed in cases seated in Australia, China, France, Germany, Hong Kong SAR, India, Japan, Korea, Malaysia, Nepal, the Philippines, Singapore, Sweden, Switzerland, Taiwan, the United Arab Emirates, the United Kingdom, the United States (including New York, California, Hawaii, and US territories) and Vietnam. In addition, he has heard cases governed by the laws of Australia, Austria, BVI, Cayman Islands, China, England and Wales, Fiji, France, Germany, Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Japan, Korea, Malaysia, Mauritius, Mongolia, the Philippines, Saudi Arabia (including Sharia), Singapore, Sweden, Switzerland, Taiwan, the United Arab Emirates, the United States (including New York, California and US territories) and Vietnam, as well as lex mercatoria. He has also handled complex conflict of law and jurisdictional issues, joinder and consolidation applications, summary dismissal applications and disputes involving multiple contracts and applicable laws.

Expert in these Jurisdictions

Professor Hughes was educated in both civil law and the common law traditions, having studied first at Seoul National University College of Law (MA, all coursework in Korean), and then at NYU School of Law (JD). While at NYU, he spent one semester at the University of Palermo Law School in Buenos Aires, Argentina (all coursework in Spanish).  He is equally comfortable in common law jurisdictions (such as the USA, UK, Singapore, Hong Kong, and Australia) and in civil law jurisdictions (such as Korea, Japan, Germany, Switzerland, and China).

Education

Awards