Essex Court Chambers welcomes Gourab Banerji as an Overseas Associate with effect from 1 October 2014. Gourab is a Senior Advocate and former Additional Solicitor General of India in the Supreme Court of India (June 2009 – May 2014). He was called to the Bar (Lincoln’s Inn) in 1990 and designated a Senior Advocate, the Indian equivalent of Queen’s Counsel, in 2003. This association reflects the set’s strong profile in the region and its members’ long-standing and continued expansion of their practices into the Asia market.
Gourab Banerji’s practice is predominantly commercial, with a strong focus on commercial arbitration. Recent arbitration related matters in the Supreme Court of India, in which he has appeared, include SBP & Co. v Patel Engineering, Smita Conductors v Euro Alloys, Sanshin Chemicals Industry v Oriental Carbons & Chemicals, Thyssen Stahlunion Gmbh v Steel Authority of India, Sumitomo Heavy Industries v Oil and Natural Gas Corporation. As India’s Additional Solicitor General, he represented the Government of India in a large number of important cases, including the landmark case of Republic of Italy v Union of India (2013) 4 SCC 721. He was also part of the Attorney General’s Committee set up in 2010 to suggest changes to the Indian Arbitration and Conciliation Act, 1996 and was sole representative of the Republic of India at the 55th Session of the UNCITRAL Working Group on Arbitration at Vienna in October, 2011. His association with Essex Court Chambers concerns his practice as Senior Advocate; he is not intending to practice as an arbitrator.
Graham Dunning QC, Co-Head of Chambers comments: “The strong international nature of the work of those practising at Essex Court Chambers differentiates us from other chambers. We have barristers qualified to practice in many overseas common law jurisdictions and who practice in all the leading arbitral venues around the world. India is a growing source of work and this is great news.”
