Tim Yimin Liu, FCIArb, mainly works on China domestic and cross-border dispute resolution arising from corporate governance, shareholder rights, complex commercial, merger and acquisition, liquidation and bankruptcy, etc. Tim’s practices include parallel litigation, international commercial arbitration and mediation, seeking or rejecting recognition and enforcement of awards, setting aside awards before state courts. Tim is also involved in cross border bankruptcy and assets recovery in various jurisdictions.

His cases are from the jurisdictions such as several states of the USA, China, the UK, the UAE (DIFC and ADGM), the KSA, Qatar, Turkey, Egypt, Israel, Kazakhstan, ASEAN, India, Australia and New Zealand.

Tim works in the capacity as legal counsel advocating for client’s interest, as neutral professional assessing a case before formal proceedings, or as arbitrator, mediator or expert as appointed by the parties or nominated by the relevant institutions.

Industries related to Tim’s practices include insurance, defense and security, electric power projects, construction, life science, materials and manufacturing, the Internet and the Internet of Things, private investment funds and digital assets, etc.

Work Experience

Tim has been practicing law since 2002. He worked with Mori Hamada & Matsumoto, Morrison & Foerster LLP, Heller Ehrman LLP, Nixon Peabody LLP, Clifford Chance LLP, also with Accenture as in-house legal counsel / director on complex digital and capital deals.

Tim worked for Byte Dance, Goldman Sachs, Goldman Sachs Gao Hua, Nomura Securities, Invesco, Invesco Great Wall Fund Management, Soft Bank, Lenovo, Accenture, Nestlé, Shanghai Electric, China Continental Insurance, Amazon, UPS, State Grid, Mitsubishi Heavy Industry, All Ride, Jing Gong Steel International, etc.

Recent Representative Cases

Represented a defendant / supplier, a Chinese company in a foreign litigation, to structure a parallel litigation under China’s jurisdiction where it switches its position as plaintiff. These parallel litigations may contradict to each other nevertheless it would be in the interests of the client to certain extent

Represented a defendant argued the issue about whether crypto currency would be a legitimate consideration of delivering certain on-job services and employment relationship under China’s legal regime
Represented a defendant / land developer argued an over-limit inappropriate assets preservation order granted by a Chinese court pursuant to the petition by a claimant / contractor in a China seated arbitration

Represented a defendant / supplier, as co-counsel with foreign counsels, to defend a case where the issue was about the validity of a letter of award and liabilities over an abandoned cross border equipment supply contract under a foreign governing law

Represented a Chinese plaintiff / buyer against two foreign defendants / sellers with domiciles from different foreign jurisdictions in a Chinese court in absence of a written international supply contract

Represented a claimant / plaintiff in a case started as arbitration but then leave for litigation in the Middle East; the disputes arose from construction steel structure international supply and erection contracts
Represented a foreign plaintiff to claim remedies after a failure of a cross-border investment (criminal settlement, civil litigation, and domestic arbitration)

Represented a plaintiff to claim remedies against a private investment fund manager, trustee bank (entrusted investment, negligence of the fund manager and trustee bank, warehouse receipt pledge)

Assisted a client (an Internet of Things supplier to smart power grid) to optimize its corporate governance and alignment of interests among investors after the target company’s private equity financing

Assisted foreign and Chinese partners to set up a joint venture in digital technology in China

Assisted to mediate a data leak incident among a data controller, data processor and their ultimate client

Arbitrated travel related disputes under the 1996 UK Arbitration Act

Admissions and Bars

People’s Republic of China
Washington D.C., USA
New York State, USA
Astana International Financial Centre Court, the Republic of Kazakhstan, Lawyer, Full Right of Audience
Dubai International Financial Centre Court, UAE, Legal Practitioner, Full Right of Audience
Singapore International Commercial Court, Foreign Registered Lawyer, Full Registration

Accreditations

Fellow (FCIArb): Chartered Institute of Arbitrators, U.K.
Fellow (FPD): Prime Dispute, U.K.
Fellow (FHKIArb): Hong Kong Institute of Arbitrators
Fellow (FAMINZ): Arbitrators’& Mediators’ Institute of New Zealand (2019~2021)
Fellow (FMIArb): The Malaysian Institute of Arbitrators
Fellow at Arbitration Practice (FAP-KFCRI): Kovise Foundation Conflict Resolution International, India

Panel Admission

Arbitrator: Shanghai Arbitration Commission
Mediator: Shenzhen Qianhai Court
Primary Panel of Arbitrator: Maldives International Arbitration Centre
Panel of Arbitrators, Mediator, Commercial Negotiator: Prime Dispute, U.K.
Panel of Arbitrator, Mediators: Saudi Center for Commercial Arbitration, Saudi Arabia
Panel of Arbitrator: BVI International Arbitration Centre
Prime Panel of Arbitrator: Maldives International Arbitration Center
Panel of Arbitrators: Beihai Arbitration Commission, China
Panel of Arbitrators: Beihai Court of International Arbitration, China

Education

MBA in Finance (F.MBA.): Cheung Kong Graduate School of Business, Beijing / Hong Kong
Master of Laws (LL.M.): New York University School of Law, U.S.A.
Bachelor of Laws (LL.B.): Tsinghua University School of Law, China

Awards

Benchmark Litigation - China Litigation Star
Chambers & Partners - Arbitration
ALB - Top 15 Chinese Litigator
LEGALBAND - Top 15 Chinese Arbitration Lawyer
The Legal 500 - Recommended Lawyer / Litigation / Real Estate and Construction / Insurance / Data Protection / Private Wealth Management
Lexology - Client Choice 2021 - Data Privacy and Protection
Chambers & Partners - Expert Focus - Columnist for Chinese Litigation
Lexology - Commentary - China Litigation - Contributing Columnist

Associations and Memberships:

Social Activities

Charted Institute of Arbitrators, East Asia Branch, Committee Member (2021-2023)
ICC China Initiative on UN Model Law of Electronic Transferable Records, Expert Member
The 18th CIETAC Cup International Commercial Arbitration Moot Competition (Willem C. Vis China National Round), Arbitrator
The 2nd CIETAC Cup Investment Arbitration Moot Competition (Frankfurt Investment Arbitration Moot Court China National Round), Presiding Arbitrator
2021 Shenzhen FDI Moot, Arbitrator
NYU Shanghai, Mentor

Professional Memberships

Federal Bar Association, U.S.A.
Washington D.C. Bar Association, U.S.A.
New York State Bar Association, U.S.A.
New York City Lawyers Association, Committee on Asian Practice, U.S.A.
International Association of Privacy Professionals (IAPP)
Dubai International Arbitration Centre, DIAC 40
Shanghai Bar Association, Committee of Maritime Laws, China
Alumni Association of New York University, U.S.A.

Publications

Tim regularly writes commentaries for Lexology about litigation in China, which can be found by this Link.
Tim Yimin Liu, Does a Right to a Physical Hearing Exit in International Arbitration? – China Report, ICCA, March 2021
Tim Yimin Liu, Your BPO Supplier is About to Working from Home – Mediation in BPO Disputes Adaptive to post COVID-19 Era, Page 26, The ACICA Review, June 2020
Tim Yimin Liu, Will COVID-19 Impact Offtake Contract in Oil & Gas Industry? (in Chinese), 2020
Tim Yimin Liu, US Tariffs and Export Administration Regulations – Impacts on China (in Chinese), 2019
Tim Yimin Liu, You May Not Fly Your Drone as You Wish (in Chinese), 2019
Tim Yimin Liu, A New Start of Sino-US Relationship: understanding Office of Foreign Assets Control of US Department of Treasury (in Chinese), 2019
Tim Yimin Liu, Data: Assets More Than Compliance (in Chinese), August 2018
Member of Clifford Chance Investment Funds team, The Internationalization of the RMB: Boosting the Prosperity of Hong Kong’s RMB Market, October 2010
Member of Clifford Chance Investment Funds team, China for Hedge Fund Managers - A Regulatory and Tax Update, August 2010
Member of Tsinghua Law School research assistant team for the World Bank, Developing Institutional Investors in the People’s Republic of China, the World Bank 2003 Country Report, 2003

Languages

Chinese, English