Steven Walker
KC
2008
2016
Expertise
International Arbitration
Construction, Engineering & Infrastructure
Oil & Gas
Mining
Banking & Financial Regulation
Commercial Litigation
Asia Pacific
Steven Walker KC is a King’s Counsel. He is a commercial Silk and a specialist in international arbitration.
Steven is a leading Silk with a formidable expertise in energy, oil & gas, mining, corporate and commercial, financial, construction, engineering and infrastructure disputes.
He has acted as Counsel in more than 200 institutional and ad hoc arbitrations globally, with a particular experience and expertise across South-East Asia, Australia, Europe, Africa and the Arabian Gulf in arbitrations conducted under a wide variety of procedural laws and rules including ICC, LCIA, SIAC, HKIAC, DIAC and UNCITRAL.
He also acts as Counsel in investment treaty arbitrations and was involved in the first ICSID investment treaty arbitration under the Energy Charter Treaty – AES v Republic of Hungary.
Steven regularly acts for corporate clients, hedge funds, private equity groups, high net worth private clients and family offices in a wide variety of commercial and corporate advisory matters (especially in relation to structuring investments to take advantage of bilateral and multilateral investment treaties) and commercial disputes (concerning for example, investment agreements, joint venture agreements, shareholders’ agreements, loan facility agreements, licensing and distribution agreements).
Steven began his career in Scotland in 1997 as a trainee solicitor. He called to the Scottish Bar in 1999 and moved to London in 2001 to join the international arbitration group of Allen & Overy. In 2007 he moved to the Cayman Islands and called to the Cayman Islands Bar.
He became a registered Foreign Lawyer in Singapore in 2015, Ireland in 2016 and Western Australia in 2017 and in 2025 became a DIFC Courts Registered Practitioner, qualified to appear before the DIFC Courts, Dubai.
Steven sits as an arbitrator and accepts appointments in institutional and ad hoc arbitrations and is a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators. He has been appointed to the leading arbitrator panels of the ICC, LCIA, SIAC, HKIAC, SCCR, DIAC, BAIAC, TAI, AIAC and THAC.
Steven has taught international arbitration, at post graduate level, at some of the World’s leading Universities including, the University of Edinburgh, Centre for Energy, Petroleum, Mineral Law and Policy, (CEPMLP) University of Dundee and the Energy Studies Institute of the National University of Singapore.
Steven is recognised as a Leading Silk by The Legal 500 for International Arbitration, Construction and Commercial disputes. Some recent examples;
Legal 500 (2026) – Ranked Leading Silk London Bar – International Arbitration Counsel
Legal 500 (2026) – Band 1 Leading Silk – Construction
Legal 500 (2025) – Band 1 Leading Silk – Commercial
Legal 500 (2025) – Band 1 Leading Silk – Construction
He is published author in international arbitration;
Pleading in Arbitration – A Practitioner’s Guide (Sweet & Maxwell / Thomson Reuters, 2012).
Pleading in Arbitration – A Practitioner’s Guide (2nd Edition) (Sweet & Maxwell / Thomson Reuters, 2017).
These books were praised by Professor Peter Klaus Berger (University of Cologne) as “an essential addition to every arbitration practitioner’s library.”
Contributing Author, Arbitration in the Energy & Mining Industry, in LexisNexis Arbitrator’s Handbook (2022).
Steven is also a member of Themis Advocates, Edinburgh, Scotland.
