Experience
Mr. Mu specializes in resolving foreign-related commercial disputes and is highly experienced in representing clients in both Chinese and overseas judicial proceedings. His clients range from multinationals and successful business leaders from the finance, investment, international hotel management, automotive, pharmaceutical, industrial gas, retail, new energy, and real estate industries.
Mr. Mu is also a seasoned expert in commercial arbitration. He currently serves as an arbitrator at the Shanghai International Arbitration Center (SHIAC), Hong Kong International Arbitration Center (HKIAC), China International Economic and Trade Arbitration Commission (CIETAC), China Maritime Arbitration Commission, Shanghai Arbitration Commission, and Shenzhen Court of International Arbitration. He is a director at the Arbitration Law Research Association of the Shanghai Law Society, a founding member of the Shanghai Arbitration Association, a member at the Arbitration Research Committee of the Shanghai Bar Association, one of the first admittees to the Shanghai International Arbitration Expert Database, and one of the first online dispute resolution neutrals of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC). Mr. Mu has published, on prominent law journals, including the China Business Law Journal and China Law & Practice, numerous commentaries on commercial arbitration, which have been widely recognized and cited within the legal community.
In 2023, a case involving the recognition and enforcement of a foreign arbitral award handled by Mr. Mu was selected as a guiding case by the Supreme People's Court of China, becoming a case to which all levels of Chinese courts hearing similar cases should refer.
He has taken part in many high-profile domestic and foreign cases as an attorney or expert witness and is well-versed in supporting and coordinating the resolution of complex cross-border disputes.
Mr. Mu has been named one of the "Top 10 Outstanding Young Lawyers in Shanghai (2011 to 2013)" and has been recommended by Chambers and Partners every year since 2014. He was recognized as a Top 15 Litigators by LEGALBAND in 2021 and among the ALB China Top 15 Litigators in 2022.
Work Highlights
• Representing a German industrial gas company in a dispute over a long-term supply contract, which was arbitrated at the CIETAC;
• Providing integrated services for a series of disputes arising from the acquisition of a pharmaceutical company in Yunnan, China by a German pharmaceutical company;
• Representing an international brewing company in a joint venture dispute against the Chinese shareholders before CIETAC;
• Representing a Malaysian listed company in a dispute over an international telecom engineering contract before CIETAC;
• Representing an international hotel company in settling its disputes with the owners before CIETAC;
• Representing a client in a shareholders' dispute over the ownership of a hotel in Gubei, Shanghai, before SHIAC;
• Representing a central SOE before CIETAC in a series of disputes arising from a large, overseas EPC project;
• Representing an automobile company in the aftermath of the explosion at Tianjin Port, including handling the colossal insurance claims and the disposal of damaged vehicles;
• Representing a gaming company in a dispute arising out of a series of VIE agreements before SHIAC and successfully invalidated the VIE structure, which was the first case of its kind;
• Representing a Mainland real estate developer in disputes arising from its apartment sales and property management contracts before HKIAC;
• Representing a client in overturning a court ruling of non-enforcement of arbitral award, which CNARB selected as one of the top ten arbitration cases in 2016;
• Representing a client in responding to the recognition and enforcement in the Mainland of a Hong Kong arbitral award made by the ICC International Court of Arbitration, which case was named by CNARB as one of the top ten arbitration cases in 2017;
• Representing the Hong Kong Chinachem Group in a series of disputes arising from its former chairwoman Ms. Nina Wang Kung Yu-sum's investment in Minsheng Bank;
• Providing opinions, and helping secure a complete victory for the plaintiff in a high-profile case before the British Virgin Islands court as an expert witness in Chinese laws. The case led to a judgment on the ownership of the foreign equities in Lunan Pharmaceutical, a well-known Chinese company, which gained extensive public spotlight;
• Providing opinions on international legal assistance matters in a case before a Cayman Islands court as an expert witness in Chinese laws; and
• Providing opinions in a Hong Kong litigation case as an expert witness in Chinese laws, helping the applicant to swiftly obtain a Mareva injunction for a global freeze of the respondent's assets.
