Chanaka de Silva

Practice Areas

Mr. Chanaka de Silva P.C. was called to the Bar in 1986. He is considered one of the foremost legal experts in the field of project finance transactions and negotiations in Sri Lanka and his expertise further extends to the field of litigation and alternate dispute resolution. He is a Founder Partner of Nithya Partners and heads the project finance and dispute resolution practices of the Firm.

He commenced his legal career as a State Counsel in the Attorney-General’s Department of Sri Lanka where he served during the period of 1987 – 1996, prior to forming Nithya Partners in 1997.

For over 35 years, Mr. De Silva has been involved in advising, negotiating, and structuring major infrastructure projects in Sri Lanka, spanning a multitude of sectors such as electricity, telecommunication, petroleum, roadways, ports, and mining. He advised on structuring and implementing the earliest public private partnerships in Sri Lanka and was the Senior Legal Consultant to the Bureau of Infrastructure Investment and its predecessor, the Secretariat for Infrastructure Development and Investment. He was also the legal advisor in most major privatizations of state entities by the Government of Sri Lanka. Mr. De Silva advised the Government of Sri Lanka and government agencies on transactions involving infrastructure development, project finance, restructuring and corporatisation and continues advising the Government, the private sector, and lending institutions on such transactions up to date.

Mr. De Silva has been consecutively ranked as a leading individual in the field of Projects and Energy and Dispute Resolution by the Legal 500 Asia Pacific, since 2010 and was inducted to the Hall of Fame of the Legal 500 in 2020. He has been ranked in Band 1 by Chambers & Partners and is endorsed as an Elite Practitioner by AsiaLaw, in the field of Dispute Resolution. He is also listed as Highly Regarded by IFLR 1000 in the fields of Banking, Energy, Infrastructure and Project Finance. Expert Guides published by Euromoney lists Mr. De Silva as one of the world’s leading practitioners in Project Finance.

Mr. De Silva is a Member of the Law Commission of Sri Lanka. He is also a Visiting Lecturer in Commercial Law at the Sri Lanka Law College and at the Master of Laws program of the University of Colombo. He has also been an Arbitrator in several international and local arbitrations.