Justice Shamlan Al Sawalehi

Justice Shamlan Al Sawalehi has over 25 years of experience in cross border financial, investment and commercial litigation and arbitration across common law, civil law and Shari’a legal systems.  

He joined the DIFC Courts in 2010 as a Judicial officer, becoming a Small Claims Tribunal Judge before being appointed to the Court of First of Instance in 2013. He was promoted to Court of Appeal Judge in 2017, and in 2020 was appointed as the Judge in Charge of the Arbitration Division of the DIFC Courts and Chair of the Courts Arbitration Group.  

Previously he founded the Shamlan Law firm where he represented UAE government and private clients on complex commercial and financial disputes in the MENA region. He has served as the Director of Strategic Affairs at The Executive Office of UAE Vice President, Prime Minister, Ruler of Dubai, and as a Law Enforcement Manager of the DIFC Regulatory Authority. He has also served as a Senior Public Prosecutor at Criminal and Civil divisions in Dubai during which he was involved in investigating high profile commercial and financial crimes, and the Government departments on several high-value litigation cases before the Dubai Courts.  

He has served as a sole arbitrator, co-arbitrator and chairman of many arbitral tribunals seated in MENA region and Europe. He has been selected as chair and member of, various arbitration courts, advisory committees, governing councils and executive committees of arbitration institutions including in the UAE, Saudi Arabia, Oman, Russia, Malysia, Tel-Aviv, Turkey and India.  

In April 2023, Justice Al Sawalehi was appointed as the designated representative of the UAE Government at the International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID) of the World bank Group.  

He obtained an LLM degree from the University of Westminster in the UK, a High Diploma in Advanced Legal and Judicial Studies from Dubai Judicial Institute and LLB in Sharia and Law from the UAE University.