The Hong Kong International Arbitration Centre has appointed Debevoise & Plimpton partner David W. Rivkin and former Secretary for Justice Rimsky Yuen to be the new co-chairs of the institution.

Rivkin and Yuen will take on the new roles June 15, succeeding Allen & Overy partner Matthew Gearing, who has led the HKIAC for the past three years.

Rivkin, who currently splits his time between New York and London, co-chairs Debevoise's international dispute resolution practice with New York partner Donald Donovan. He has been a lifer with Debevoise, having first joined the firm in 1981. Rivkin specializes in complex high-stakes international disputes, especially big-ticket investor-state arbitrations. He has argued cases involving governments and entities from Hong Kong, Korea, Laos and elsewhere in Asia.

Rivkin will continue to be based in New York and London, and will regularly visit Hong Kong, once COVID travel restrictions are lifted.

Yuen, who practices as a barrister and is a member of Hong Kong-based Temple Chambers, is best known for his tenure as the city's secretary for justice between 2012 and 2018. As justice secretary, Yuen was one of the officials that led an effort to reform elections of Hong Kong's chief executive and legislature. The reform efforts, which coincided with the 2014 Occupy Central movement, were unsuccessful. He resumed private practice after resigning from public office in 2018 and specializes in commercial litigation and arbitration.

Despite the political nature of many of the controversies during Yuen's time in office, the HKIAC said in a statement that as justice secretary, he helped make important changes to the legislative framework that facilitated Hong Kong's development as a regional arbitration center. These included enforcement by Hong Kong courts of emergency arbitrator relief made elsewhere, clarifying that disputes concerning intellectual property rights are arbitrable in Hong Kong, and allowing for third-party funding in arbitrations.

Yuen's successor as justice secretary, Teresa Cheng, who has been in office since 2018, is a veteran international arbitration practitioner and was chair of the HKIAC between 2014 and 2017. Matthew Gearing, the current chair, succeeded Cheng in 2017.

In addition to the co-chairs, the HKIAC also appointed three vice chairs as part of the leadership. Nils Eliasson, a Hong Kong partner at Shearman & Sterling, and Briana Young, a professional support lawyer who manages Herbert Smith Freehills' Greater China arbitration practice, join incumbent Joseph Wan as vice chairs of the institution.

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