Timothy COOKE

Timothy is an international arbitration barrister. He represents clients in arbitrations under the rules of the leading arbitral institutions with a focus on investment disputes in a wide range of sectors and across jurisdictions in Asia such as Vietnam, Indonesia, India and China. He has particular experience in complex joint venture and shareholder disputes, cases involving energy and natural resources, entertainment and media, and transportation. Timothy is also frequently appointed as arbitrator.

Timothy is consistently recognised as a leading individual, most recently by Chambers Asia-Pacific (2024) for Dispute Resolution: Arbitration – Singapore and by The Legal 500 Asia Pacific (2024) for International Arbitration. He was awarded ‘International Arbitration Lawyer of the Year’ at the Asia Legal Awards (2024). He has been recognised as a Litigation Star for International Arbitration and Dispute Resolution by Benchmark Litigation every year since 2017.

The legal directories describe him as “brilliant” and “loved by clients for his no-nonsense approach”, “phenomenal, super-responsive and across all of the papers and strategy”, “very hands-­on”, “a class act across the board”, “extremely knowledgeable on the law and very user-friendly”, “a pleasure to work with” and “a superb international arbitrator”.

Timothy is ranked as “a top practitioner”, “an outstanding advocate” who possesses “wide and deep experience in many sectors”. He is “particularly suited to complex arbitration issues”, “someone who can be relied on for difficult and complex assignments”, and who “assimilates information and facts quickly and has a sound understanding of arbitration rules and procedures”.

As an advocate, he “masters his brief thoroughly”, “knows his cases and doesn’t get flustered”, he “gets to what's important in the case", is “technically excellent and a stellar performer on his feet”, with a “measured advocacy style”, as is “commended for his writing skills, which are succinct, to the point and very astute”.

Timothy is the author of the leading Singapore arbitration book, International Arbitration in Singapore: Legislation and Materials (Sweet & Maxwell, 2018), which has been cited with approval by the Singapore Courts and is independently reviewed as “an impressive comprehensive guide to the law and practice of international arbitration in Singapore”, “learned, succinct, and absolutely to the point” and “an invaluable resource” whose “breadth of coverage is truly remarkable”.

Timothy also designed and coded the Reed Smith Arbitration Pricing Calculator, for which he won Innovator of the Year – Law Firm (Individual) at ALM Law.Com Legalweek’s Leaders in Tech Law Awards 2023. The app has also received numerous other accolades, including being shortlisted for ‘Best Innovation’ at the Global Arbitration Review Awards 2022, ‘Most Innovative Use of Technology’ at The Lawyer Awards 2022, and commended in the ‘Digital Legal Practice’ category at the FT Innovative Lawyers Asia Pacific Awards 2023.