Corporate

Partner

Sharmilla Bhima is a partner in the Corporate department in Mauritius. Prior to joining the firm in August 2007, she was a practising barrister in general private practice with exposure to both the offshore commercial and litigation.

Sharmilla has specialised in international arbitration. She is a member of the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators UK and is an arbitrator on the MARC Panel of Arbitrators of the Mauritius Chamber of Commerce and Industry. She formed part of the team that was responsible for opening the former LCIA chapter in Mauritius on international arbitration when the LCIA set up the LCIA-MIAC international arbitration centre jointly with the Government of Mauritius in 2011, from which it officially withdrew as from 27 July 2018.

She is one of the contributing authors for Lexis Nexis, representing Appleby, on International Arbitration in relation to the Mauritian jurisdiction and remains active on matters relating to international arbitration. Sharmilla gained significant experience on arbitration in relation to insurance claims linked with road-accidents as a Vice-Chairman of the Motor Vehicle Insurance Arbitration Committee.

She has acquired expertise on intellectual property law and regularly advises on the protection of intellectual property. As Chairperson of the Industrial Property Tribunal she helped the Government of Mauritius adopt the Copyright Act 2014 and the Industrial Property Act 2019.

She has been actively involved in community service and (i) helped with the launch of the Appleby Legal Education Scholarship in Mauritius (ii) served as the President of The English-Speaking Union (Mauritius) from 2009 to 2011 and contributes to CPD courses in her areas of specialism to the Institute of Judicial Legal Studies (IJLS) of Mauritius and made presentations on these areas.

Sharmilla is fluent in English and French and has a working knowledge of Hindi.

Sharmilla is a Fellow of the Mauritius Institute of Directors. She is a member of the following institutions:

The American Chamber of Commerce, Mauritius; The Honourable Society of Lincoln’s Inn, UK and currently serves as the Vice-President of the Alumni branch of Lincoln’s Inn in Mauritius; and The Mauritius Bar Association for which she also served as a co-opted member of the Mauritius Bar Council 2007-2008.

Undertook her pupillage at Thomas More Chambers, London, UK and was called to the English Bar at the Honourable Society of Lincoln’s Inn in July 1998. She was called to the Mauritian Bar in September 1999. She has specialised in international arbitration with Queen Mary University of London and the World Intellectual Property Organisation and has an interest in Blockchain and FinTech and the emerging technologies.

Said Business School, University of Oxford (England) Queen Mary University of London (England) World Intellectual Property Organisation (WIPO) (Switzerland) BPP Law School, London (England) The University of Reading (England)