May Tai

China-specific counsel experience

• successfully representing a major Chinese energy state-owned enterprise as claimant against its joint venture partner in a multi-billion dollar arbitration administered by SIAC. At US$5.5 billion, this is the largest claim ever filed at SIAC  
• successfully represented a Japanese trading house in a joint venture dispute against a Taiwanese company arising out of their multi-billion dollar Chinese consumer retail business 

Arbitrator experience

• Presiding arbitrator in a HKIAC dispute over a natural resources investment where the quantum of the dispute is US$300 million 
• Party-appointed arbitrator in a CIETAC HK dispute relating to the China business of a well-known restaurant franchise

Other experience

• representing Malaysian telecoms giant Axiata on its BIT claim against Nepal over the state's tax demand in connection with Axiata's acquisition of mobile telco Ncell from TeliaSonera
• representing a leading Asian retail group in relation to significant joint venture disputes 
• Telekom Malaysia as claimant in a UNCITRAL arbitration against the Government of Ghana for improper regulatory interference with and expropriation of Telekom’s investments in Ghana, and related domestic Ghanaian court proceedings. The arbitration was administered by the Permanent Court of Arbitration and the seat was the Hague
• a major Korean conglomerate company is defending arbitration proceedings (including an emergency arbitrator application) brought by a European company under the SIAC rules in respect of a ship building contract
• BP and Rio Tinto in an International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes arbitration brought by the Provincial Government of East Kalimantan over disputes relating to a coal mining concession contract
• The Barbados Government in a Part XV and Annex VII United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea arbitration against Trinidad relating to maritime delimitation and hydrocarbon rights
• a major German energy company in an International Chamber of Commerce (ICC) arbitration against an Indonesian coal producer for breach of a coal supply agreement, including the effect of government regulations on private parties’ contractual obligations
• a global geophysical services company in SIAC arbitration proceedings – and possible parallel Association of Southeast Asian Nations Treaty arbitration – against a Southeast Asian state, relating to the state’s refusal to allow the exploration and production of two offshore oilfields
• a major energy consortium on claims, taxes and penalties brought by a Kazakhstan Government agency in the Kazakhstan courts relating to production from a large Kazakh oilfield and other contractual and investment treaty arbitration claims
• a Canadian energy company in an ICC arbitration claim arising out of the sale and purchase of a Kazakhstan limited liability partnership whose primary assets were licences to produce three oil fields in the Caspian, and in a related freezing injunction application in the English High Court
• a major energy company in a London Court of International Arbitration matter regarding the construction of an offshore oil platform in the Gulf of Mexico