Gordon Blanke LL.M, PhD, MCIArbis Partner of International Commercial and Investment Arbitration Group with DWF (Middle East) LLP in the DIFC, Dubai. He has wide-ranging experience in all types of international commercial and investment arbitration in both the common and civil law legal systems, having acted as advising counsel and arbitrator under most leading institutional arbitration rules (ICC, LCIA, DIFC-LCIA, DIAC, ADCCAC, GAFTA, GCC, JAMS, SCC, etc.) and ad hoc in arbitrations seated in the US, Europe and the Middle East in relation to a variety of industry sectors, including construction/real estate, corporate, oil & gas, IT, banking & finance etc. Dr. Blanke speaks regularly on international arbitration and has published over 200 books and articles on international arbitration, including Comparison of Gulf International Arbitration Rules (2010), Comparison of MENA International Arbitration Rules (2011) and Arbitration in the MENA (2016), all three published by Juris, and most recently Commentary on the UAE Arbitration Chapter, Sweet & Maxwell (2017) and Dispute Resolution in the Gulf, LexisNexis (2018). In the 2014 and 2015 editions of The Legal 500, Dr. Blanke has been recommended for international arbitration in the UAE, being praised as “very professional” in the 2016 edition. Dr. Blanke is also listed as a leading arbitration specialist in Who’s Who Legal 2015-2018 and has most recently been recognized in GAR’s first three editions of Who’s Who Legal: Arbitration – Future Leaders? In addition, Dr. Blanke is admitted as an advocate to the DIFC Courts. He is a member and Vice Chair of the Steering Committee of the UAE-ICC Commission on Arbitration & ADR and on the editorial board of a number of leading arbitration journals, including in particular Arbitration, the journal of the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators.