Biography: Trade & Customs

Nicolas Lockhart is a partner in Sidley's Geneva office and a member of the international trade and arbitration group, with a practice that focuses on the development and enforcement of international trade rules, in particular at the WTO. His clients include companies, trade associations, and governments, and he helps them improve market access and tackle regulatory barriers affecting goods and services. He has also assisted clients in protecting intellectual property rights granted by international agreements.

Drawing on more than 15 years in the field of international dispute settlement, Mr Lockhart offers clients an in-depth knowledge of WTO practice, procedures, and substantive law. He has a wide WTO practice that is marked by diversity. He has worked with WTO members as complainants, respondents and third parties, in disputes involving agricultural and industrial subsidies, anti-dumping measures, customs valuation, import quotas, intellectual property rights, national treatment, sanitary measures, and technical regulations; he has also worked on disputes touching on WTO exceptions for public health, customs enforcement, and free trade agreements.

Mr Lockhart has assisted clients at all stages of WTO dispute settlement, from developing cases to securing effective implementation. In the course of his work, he made written and oral arguments to panels and the appellate body in both original and compliance proceedings, and to arbitrators under articles 21.3(c) and 22.6 of the Dispute Settlement Understanding (DSU), and under articles 4.10 and 7.9 of the Subsidies and Countervailing Measures (SCM) Agreement.

Mr Lockhart complements his dispute settlement work with policy-related advice to clients in the context of the Doha Development Round of trade negotiations. He has counselled WTO members and commercial stakeholders in relation to agricultural and industrial subsidies, anti-dumping and countervailing measures, dispute settlement rules, and services.

Before joining Sidley, Mr Lockhart spent five years advising the WTO appellate body. During that time, he had the privilege to work with the appellate body in 16 appeals and also assisted the article 21.3(c) arbitrators in two arbitrations.

Mr Lockhart also has extensive experience in EU law, gained during nearly four years advising Judge David Edward at the Court of Justice of the EU in Luxembourg, working in a variety of areas, including EU competition and trade law, and the status of WTO rules in EU law. Mr Lockhart has published and taught in the fields of WTO and EU law and has also spoken at conferences and seminars.

Mr Lockhart received his LLM from Harvard Law School in 1993, his Diploma in Legal Practice from the University of Edinburgh in 1992 and his LLB (first class honours) from the same institution in 1991. He is a qualified solicitor in Scotland.