Biography: Arbitration

Michael E Schneider is a founding partner of LALIVE, a Geneva-based international law firm. He has practised international arbitration for more than 35 years, acting as counsel before arbitration tribunals under various rules, including those of the ICC, ICSID, Swiss Rules, Stockholm Institute, Cairo Regional Centre for International Commercial Arbitration (CRCICA), European Development Fund amd UNCITRAL, and before other international bodies including the WTO appellate body and the United Nations Compensation Commission. He has also been sitting as arbitrator (chair, sole or co-arbitrator) under the rules of many institutions both in Switzerland and abroad.

His main areas of practice include construction, industrial engineering and infrastructure projects, investment and other disputes involving states, natural resources (particularly oil and gas), environment, telecommunications and joint ventures. He has specific experience in managing large and complex disputes and leading teams of specialists, including lawyers, from various fields and cultural backgrounds.

Mr Schneider is president of the Swiss Arbitration Association (ASA). He is also vice chair of the ICC commission on arbitration, and has been a member of several of its working groups (1998 and 2010 revisions of the ICC rules, construction, pre-arbitral referee). He has been chairing the UNCITRAL WG II (arbitration) on the revision of the arbitration rules from 2006 to 2010 and is a member of the executive committee of the Dubai International Arbitration Centre (DIAC). Academic posts include director of studies at the Centre for Studies and Research at The Hague Academy of International Law (transnational arbitration and state contracts).

He speaks fluent English, French and German and has basic knowledge of Italian, Spanish and Arabic.

Biography: Construction

Michael E Schneider is a founding partner of Lalive, a Geneva-based international law firm. His principal areas of practice include all aspects of international construction projects, predominantly dispute settlement through various mechanisms.

Mr Schneider's experience relates to projects in the field of civil engineering (dams, roads, bridges, pipelines), infrastructure (oil, gas, coal, lignite and hydropower plants, subways, railways, water and sewage, waste disposal), industrial engineering (refineries, gas plants, various manufacturing processes), building, environmental restoration (in particular following the 1990–91 Gulf War) and internal relations between consortium or joint venture partners. As for contracting methods, they include EPC, turnkey, cost reimbursement and unit rates as well as various contract forms, including FIDIC, European Development Fund, UNECE and various national forms. Mr Schneider has specific experience in managing large and complex disputes, by organising and leading teams of specialists in different fields and from different cultural backgrounds.

In addition to his practice with Lalive, Mr Schneider served from 1978 to 1987 as in-house counsel to UNEFICO, the Swiss Bank Corporation Consultants Group, in charge of developing, financing and implementing engineering and other projects, primarily in developing countries.

His other construction-related activities include membership in an UNCITRAL expert group (Guide on Industrial Works Contracts), ICC working groups on arbitration and construction and on pre-arbitral referee procedure, and a research project on cost-reimbursement contracts. He is a member of the Scientific Council of the Swiss and International Construction Law Institute and has served as co-chair of the IBA international construction projects committee and its subcommittee on construction arbitration. Mr Schneider is also the president of ASA, the Swiss Arbitration Association.

He speaks fluent English, French and German and a has basic knowledge of Italian, Spanish and Arabic.