David Herlihy SC

Practice Areas

David Herlihy has more than 20 years' experience in international arbitration, with a focus on international commercial arbitration, investment treaty arbitration and public international law. Over that period, he has won some of the largest and most high-profile arbitrations in the world. These include two cases accorded “international arbitration team of the year” by Legal Business. He has also been voted as an “MVP” for international arbitration by Law 360 and has been repeatedly recognised as a leader in his field by multiple directories, which describe him as “an outstanding talent” and “nothing but exceptional”. David is admitted to practice in Ireland, England and New York.

He has an undefeated track record of success in investor-state arbitration, acting both for investors and for states over the last two decades. His recent victories include representing Vodafone in its high-profile investment treaty win against India (where the amount in dispute exceeded USD 5 billion); successfully defending Cyprus in a EUR 1 billion investment treaty claim arising out of the Eurozone financial crisis; and winning the largest-ever investment treaty award in the renewable energy sector (acting for Dutch subsidiaries of NextEra Energy against Spain). His current representations including acting for the Kingdom of Bahrain in pending ICSID proceedings under the Malaysia-Bahrain BIT.

Beyond these cases, David has also acted as counsel in dozens of arbitrations under the arbitral rules of the International Chamber of Commerce, the London Court of International Arbitration, the International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes, the International Dispute Resolution Centre and the American Arbitration Association, as well as cases administered by the Permanent Court of Arbitration under the UNCITRAL Rules.

David has acted for several of the largest foreign investors in India and has more than 10 years’ experience of advising on disputes arising from those investments, including arbitrations and related litigation in the Indian courts.

He is also highly experienced in matters of EU law – especially EU competition law and State aid law – and has full rights of audience before the EU courts.

In addition, David has handled multiple cases enforcing arbitral awards, as well as defending against set-aside and annulment applications under both the New York Convention and ICSID Convention.  These include advising in connection with arbitration-related proceedings before the courts of England, India, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Singapore, Spain and the United States.

David has particular expertise in disputes relating to the renewable energy, telecoms and technology sectors.