Sheila Ahuja KC

Sheila Ahuja KC is a Partner who co-heads the Asia-Pacific arbitration practice and is joint chair of the firm's India Group. Her primary practice area is Arbitration and Mediation, and she was appointed King's Counsel in March 2025.

She advises clients on complex international commercial arbitrations and investor-State disputes across the Asia Pacific region, with particular expertise in disputes arising from joint ventures, distributorship arrangements, complex financial products, and energy and infrastructure projects. She regularly appears as lead counsel before courts and tribunals and sits as arbitrator under various rules, with experience spanning SIAC, HKIAC, ICC, UNCITRAL, ICSID, LCIA and DIAC arbitrations.

With over two decades of experience, she is recognised as an internationally renowned arbitration specialist. Her representative matters include advising Shell (formerly BG) and Reliance on UNCITRAL arbitration proceedings against the Government of India relating to disputes exceeding USD 5 billion, and advising Nissan on a claim against the Republic of India under the 2011 Japan-India Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement.

She also advised Baggerwerken Decloedt en Zoon NV in an ICSID arbitration against the Republic of the Philippines arising from the cancellation of a EUR 280 million infrastructure project, which resulted in the first successful ICSID award against the Philippines. Other matters include HKIAC arbitrations for an international investment bank concerning ISDA derivatives trades and a guarantee, and disputes for the Hong Kong branch of an Indian bank involving approximately USD 0.5 billion owed under letters of undertaking.

She is the highest ranked female arbitration counsel in Singapore by Chambers Asia Pacific 2026 and is ranked Band 1 for Dispute Resolution (International Firms) in Malaysia by Chambers Asia Pacific 2026 and Chambers Global 2026. She is also ranked as a leading lawyer by Legal 500 Asia Pacific and Who's Who Legal, and was named one of ALB's Top Female Lawyers in Asia in 2026. She has published extensively on international arbitration and is an Adjunct Associate Professor at the Faculty of Law, National University of Singapore.

She holds an LLB from the University of London (2004), a PCLL from The University of Hong Kong (2005), and an MA in Law from the University of Cambridge (2007). She was admitted as King's Counsel, England and Wales in 2025, to the Bar Council of Delhi in 2022, and as a Solicitor in England and Wales (2011) and Hong Kong (2010). She speaks English, Cantonese, Hindi, Sindi and Mandarin.