Our team is headed by Dr. Gordon Blanke.

Dr. Blanke has extensive and wide-ranging experience in all types of international commercial and investment arbitration in both common- and civil law jurisdictions, having acted as advising counsel and arbitrator under most leading institutional arbitration rules (including the ICC, LCIA, DIAC, DIFC-LCIA, ADCCAC, GCC, SCC and JAMS arbitration rules) and ad hoc (including the GAFTA, LMAA and UNCITRAL Rules) in arbitrations seated in the US, Europe, the Middle East and Asia in relation to a variety of industry sectors, including aviation, private equity, banking and finance, construction/real estate, commodities, hospitality, travel/leisure, cosmetics, IT, telecoms, oil and gas, maritime/shipping etc. Dr. Blanke has also been appointed to the ADGM, ADCCAC, CIETAC and CRCICA Panel of Arbitrators. 

In the 2014 and 2015 editions of The Legal 500, Dr. Blanke has been recommended for international arbitration in the UAE and is praised as “very professional” in The Legal 500 2016. He is also recommended, including for construction arbitration, in The Legal 500 EMEA 2019. More recently, Dr. Blanke has been ranked in the Legal 500 Private Practice Arbitration Powerlist - Middle East Region 2023. Dr. Blanke is listed as a leading arbitration specialist in Who’s Who Legal 2015 and 2016, Who’s Who Arbitration – Future Leaders 2017, 2018, 2019 and 2020 and in Who’s Who Legal: Arbitration 2021 and as a Global Leader in arbitration in Who’s Who Legal 2022, 2023 and 2024 and recommended for arbitration in the Lexology Index 2025. He is further known for his expertise in international antitrust arbitration, having been an active member of the former ICC Task Force for Arbitrating Competition Law Issues.

Dr. Blanke has sat as Chairman, Sole Arbitrator and Co-arbitrator in over 80 ICC, LCIA, SCC, DIFC-LCIA, DIAC, ADCCAC, AjCCCA and ad hoc (including UNCITRAL and LMAA) arbitrations, including international commercial, construction, real estate, corporate, shipping and other disputes of varying sizes, governed by English, Italian, Swedish, Qatari and UAE law. Dr. Blanke is a Member of the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators in London, England. The 2022, 2023, 2024 and 2025 editions of Chambers & Partners Global list Dr. Blanke as one of the Most in Demand Arbitrators in the UAE.

Dr. Blanke is also affiliated to a number of professional organisation, in which he plays an active part, including the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators London, London Court of International Arbitration (LCIA), the Austrian Arbitration Association, the Dubai International Arbitration Centre (DIAC), the Oman International Arbitration Centre (OIAC), the German Arbitration Institution (DIS), the Swiss Arbitration Association (ASA), the ICC Commission on Arbitration & ADR, the ICC Commission on Competition, the IBA Arbitration and Antitrust Committees, the Legal Task Force of the Djibouti International Arbitration Centre (DJIAC) and the International Arbitration Institute (IAI), Paris.

For a full CV, see short form or long form.