Laura Rees-Evans

Laura is an English-qualified solicitor and Solicitor-Advocate (Higher Courts Civil Proceedings). Laura’s practice focuses on contentious and non-contentious aspects of public international law (PIL) and international arbitration.  Laura is widely recognised in the leading legal directories for her expertise in these fields.  She has been recognised as a “Rising Star” in PIL in the Legal 500 UK Solicitors annually since 2022.  She has been ranked in Chambers UK since 2023, most recently (2024) as an “up and coming” lawyer in PIL.  She has been included in the (biennial) Lawdragon 500 Leading Global Litigators guide since 2021 for her expertise in PIL.  She is also recommended by Legal 500 UK Solicitors 2024 for international arbitration.  She was included in Who’s Who Legal 2024 as a “Future Leader” in Arbitration (based on recommendations from peers and clients), and selected by peers for inclusion in the 2024 edition of The Best Lawyers: Ones to Watch in the United KingdomTM in International Arbitration.  Chambers reports that clients describe Laura as “very impressive”, an “outstanding lawyer”, who “has deep expertise in international arbitration and public international law” and provides “high-quality advice”.

Laura advises on a wide range of PIL issues, including international investment law; international human rights law; the law of the sea; statehood and sovereignty issues; treaty interpretation; and UN procedure.  She has acted in a number of inter-State proceedings, both before the International Court of Justice and under the auspices of the Permanent Court of Arbitration, and in proceedings before the European Court of Human Rights.  She also acts for claimant investors and respondent States in complex and high-value international investment arbitrations across a range of different industry sectors, and has experience of all the major arbitral rules (ICSID, SCC, UNCITRAL).  Laura also regularly advises on PIL issues before domestic courts (including, in particular, State immunity issues, recognition and enforcement of arbitral awards, and set-aside proceedings), and recently advised a client defending set-aside proceedings in which a reference was made to the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU).

Laura has delivered numerous training courses to officials of State clients and lectures at academic and other institutions on topics of PIL and international arbitration. Laura is frequently invited to speak at conferences and has authored and co-authored numerous articles on topics of PIL and international arbitration.

Solicitor-Advocate (Higher Courts Civil Proceedings) (2016)

Admitted to practise in England & Wales (2012)

M.A. in Jurisprudence (2010), University of Oxford

Legal Practice Course (2009), University of Law (London)

LLM in International Legal Studies (2008), New York University (Graduate editor of the Journal of International Law and Politics; Research Assistant to Professor Benedict Kingsbury)

B.A. in Jurisprudence, with Law Studies in Italy (first class honours) (2007), University of Oxford (President of the Worcester College Law Society (2004-5))