Mr. Jonathan Leach, Partner at Eversheds Sutherland, joined us for Breakfast Chat at the Delhi Arbitration Weekend (DAW) 2025, organised by Quadrant Chambers, highlighting India’s evolving arbitration landscape and its growing importance in global dispute resolution.
1. Is this your first time to Delhi Arbitration Weekend (DAW 2025)? What are you looking forward to in DAW, 2025?
Jonathan Leach: It’s my first time here, and I’m very excited. I’m looking forward to sharing ideas with peers who are in the arbitration community and talking about the best practices. I’m also excited about learning more about India’s efforts to become an international hub for arbitration. A lot of us have been following developments in India for some time, and we’ve been very excited by what’s been happening over the last couple of years or so, in particular.
2. What impact do events like DAW have in making India as an international hub for arbitration?
Jonathan Leach: What’s really important for any country that wants to become an international arbitration hub is to develop an internal domestic ecosystem, and you need to have homegrown top-flight arbitrators who are going to be appointed not only by Indian parties but also by foreign parties.
One of the ways to build up that homegrown talent, and that domestic ecosystem, is to hold conferences like this (DAW), which become events on the international map where you have a lot of domestic international arbitration practitioners but also a lot of foreign international arbitration practitioners like myself who are talking about best practice in Arbitration.
3. What are the key differences you have seen between the arbitration ecosystem in India and the UK?
Jonathan Leach: In the UK, London as a seat of arbitration is undoubtedly more established than India. So, in that sense, perhaps you’re a little bit behind us on the journey. But London has to be on its guard, and we’ve been having a lot of discussions in London about the rise of international arbitration seats elsewhere.
Effectively, at the end of the day, parties have a choice– they can decide where they want to have their arbitration seat. Singapore, for example, has done extremely well in marketing itself as an arbitration seat, and I increasingly see India doing the same.
The institutions in India have really stepped up. One of the perceptions that foreign clients used to have about arbitrations in India was that the arbitrations were treated by the arbitrators here as more like court cases than arbitrations, but that’s changing, and I really see a bright future for India as an arbitration hub.
4. What are the unique challenges and Considerations for doing arbitration in India?
Jonathan Leach: India has to position itself as the main competitor with Singapore, within the Asia market. India has advantages over other jurisdictions because there’s so much trade flow in and out of India from so many different places in the world.
India has a common law system, in the same way as England and Singapore, which is attractive to a lot of foreign clients from the UK and the US, in particular. And India also has the advantage that the market for counsel here probably lower rates than in the UK, so overall arbitration is going to be less expensive.
5. If you have to define Delhi Arbitration Week in one word, what would that be?
Jonathan Leach: Inspirational!