Biography: Arbitration

Dr Richard Happ is partner of Luther, based in the Hamburg office and co-head of the firm's arbitration practice Group. He has acted as counsel or arbitrator in cases under DIS, ICC, SCC, Uncitral, ad hoc and ICSID rules. Among those cases were disputes arising out of international sales contracts, oil and gas joint ventures, service and marketing contracts, commercial production agreements, power plant construction and foreign investments. His practice focuses on national and international arbitration in general and investment arbitration in particular. Dr Happ speaks German and English and has conducted arbitral proceedings in each of these languages.

Dr Happ is co-chair of the DIS40, the German Institution of Arbitration's Young Arbitrators Initiative, and co-founder of the Hamburg Arbitration Circle. He is ranked/listed for arbitration and dispute resolution in Chambers Global, Chambers Europe and Legal500.

He is the author of numerous publications with respect to international arbitration proceedings between investors and foreign states. He recently co-authored the Digest on ICSID Awards and Decisions 2003-2007 (2009, Oxford University Press) and published a commentary on the ICSID arbitration rules (Heymanns, 2010, English version forthcoming). He has taught international arbitration and investment arbitration at the University of Kiel (Germany).

He graduated in 1996 from University of Kiel. After three years as a research assistant in the field of private international law, he undertook his legal clerkship (Referendariat) in Hamburg and Brussels (Energy Charter Secretariat). He joined Luther in 2001 and became a partner in 2009. Luther is an independent German legal partnership with approximately 320 lawyers and tax advisers in 12 German and five foreign offices.