Nicolas Wiegand

Nicolas specializes in international commercial and investment arbitration with a focus on corporate, joint venture, licensing and IP, sales, distribution and supply disputes, in particular in the life sciences, energy, technology, construction and infrastructure as well as mobility sectors. He is highly experienced with arbitration in or in relation to or involving parties from Asia, Europe and the US.

Having lived and worked for many years in both civil law (Germany, Switzerland) and common law (Hong Kong, Singapore, California, New York, Australia) jurisdictions, Nicolas is experienced in handling cases under both legal traditions. He has so far acted in more than 140 international arbitrations under all major arbitration rules as well as ad hoc cases governed by a broad range of different substantive laws. He also acted in investment disputes and other disputes involving states and state-owned enterprises or authorities.

Nicolas is a very experienced arbitrator. To date, he has sat in close to 50 international cases covering a wide range of both civil and common law jurisdictions, including, primarily, Korea, Japan, Hong Kong, Singapore, PRC, Germany, Switzerland, California and New York, but also Vietnam, Thailand, Malaysia, UAE, Kuwait, Qatar, Mongolia, Sri Lanka and others. His cases are seated at the major arbitration hubs worldwide.

Nicolas joined CMS in 2006 and was made partner in 2013. In 2009/2010, he was seconded to Clayton Utz in Sydney. He has been head of the CMS arbitration practice in the Asia-Pacific region for almost a decade. In January 2020, he has been appointed as co-head for the firm’s dispute resolution practice, and in 2023 he also became the head of the firm’s US related arbitration practice.

Nicolas is regularly engaged as a speaker at international arbitration conferences and holds offices with and gives training courses for several arbitral institutions.

Education:

• 2006 – Research assistant for a German Federal Court of Justice lawyer.
• 2005 – PhD at the University of Munich on secured transactions and corporate law.
• Trainee lawyer with Higher Regional Court Munich including stint abroad with Alston & Bird, LLP., New York.
• 2004 – Research assistant at the Institute for Civil Law at the University of Munich.
• 2003 – Graduated in law from the University of Munich.
• 2001 – Banking training and employed in the corporate clients department of Credit Suisse.
• 1998 – Law studies at the University of Munich.