Niuscha Bassiri

Partner - Admitted in Cologne and registered in Brussels

niuscha.bassiri@hvdb.com T: +32 (0)2 290 39 00 F: +32 (0)2 290 39 39

Niuscha Bassiri is a partner at Hanotiau & van den Berg in Brussels.

For more than two decades, she acts as counsel and arbitrator in numerous international arbitrations under the major arbitral institutions and arbitration rules (CEPANI, DIFC-LCIA, DIS, ICC, LCIA, NAI, SCC, SCAI, SIAC, UNCITRAL, VIAC) governed by various procedural and substantive laws. The arbitrations in which she has been involved concern State-entities and private entities alike, spanning a multitude of sectors such as banking, construction, energy, finance, infrastructure, insurance, luxury, maritime equipment, metallurgical industry, mining, nuclear power plants, oil & gas, pharmaceuticals, satellites, solar power plants, telecommunication, transportation and wind parks and relating to diverse legal issues including investment, distributorship, joint ventures, licensing, patents, post-M&A, sales of goods and shareholdings.

Her training as a District Court and Court of Appeal judge in Germany gives Niuscha Bassiri relevant insight to judicial approach.

Her diverse and vast experience has led her to become a sought-after strategic adviser on setting-aside and enforcement matters, in particular under the New York Convention regime. She appears as counsel before EU Member State courts, also representing sovereign States.

As a mediator, she has successfully concluded an ICC mediation in an international post-M&A matter.

Niuscha Bassiri is a member of the faculty of the University of Miami White & Case International Arbitration LLM program. She was a Visiting Senior Fellow at the National University of Singapore Faculty of Law and a guest lecturer in the Geneva LLM in International Dispute Settlement (MIDS) program. She was a long-time lecturer in the master’s program of the ICHEC Business and Management School in Brussels on International Commercial Law and Dispute Resolution. She has given lectures at the ICC’s ePIDA Training on International Commercial Arbitration in 2020. Since 2020, she has been a faculty member of the CIArb’s Virtual Diploma on International Commercial Arbitration program. In 2023-2024, she is sharing her expertise as the Co-Chair and faculty member of the ICC Advanced Arbitration Academy for Eastern Europe. She is also the Chair and faculty member of the Delos Dispute Resolution’s Writing Awards Course. As a member of the ICC Task Force Addressing Issues of Corruption in International Arbitration, she is a Co-coordinator of one of the tracks, focussing on the use of technology detecting red flags and other indicia.

Niuscha Bassiri regularly speaks at leading conferences and seminars on international arbitration. She publishes on relevant matters concerning international arbitration, such as efficiency in investment arbitration, arbitrators’ nationality, EU consumer law and arbitration, enforcement of awards rendered in ODR, default arbitration proceedings and arbitrators and their online identity. She is the co-editor and author of various landmark books, amongst them International Arbitration and the COVID-19 Revolution, as well as Arbitration in Belgium, the sole English-language commentary on the Belgian arbitration law. She is also a co-author in the leading German language commentary on the ICC and DIS Rules. Amongst others, she has led the task force on the Young ICCA Guide on Arbitral Secretaries and translated from English into German ICCA’s Guide to the Interpretation of the 1958 New York Convention.

Niuscha Bassiri is a member of the Advisory Board of CyberArb and the Indian Review of International Arbitration, a member of the CEPANI Committee on Diversity and Inclusion, a member of the Editorial Board of the Journal of International Arbitration, a member of the CIAM Award Scrutiny Commission, a Court Member of the Casablanca International Mediation And Arbitration Center (CIMAC), a member of the IBA Investment Arbitration as well as the IBA Rules and Guidelines Sub-Committees, a member of the ICC Institute of World Business Law, the ICCA-IBA Joint Task Force on Data Protection in International Arbitration Proceedings and a member of the SIAC Users Council. She is also a member of the CEPANI, BVI International Arbitration Centre panel of arbitrators, DIS, IBA, ICCA, LCIA, and the SIAC panel of arbitrators. Currently, she is a Mentor in the Young-ICCA Mentoring Programme.

Niuscha Bassiri is a former member of the International Board of the Finnish Arbitration Institution (FAI), the Appointing Committee of the German Arbitration Institute (DIS) as well as the ICC Task Force on Emergency Arbitrator Proceedings and a former Vice-President of the Belgian Chapter of the Club Español de Arbitraje. She was the Chair of the Jury of the CEPANI Academic Prize 2021.

Niuscha Bassiri attended the Universities of Cologne and Barcelona. She is admitted to the Cologne Bar and is a member of the Brussels Bar. She holds German and Iranian nationalities. She is a native German and Farsi speaker, with fluency in English and a working knowledge of Dutch, French and Spanish.

Niuscha Bassiri has received many professional accolades, recognizing her as one of the best in international arbitration. Since 2014, she has been praised in Who’s Who Legal—Arbitration. In 2016, she was ranked in the top 20 practitioners worldwide by WWL: Future Leaders – Arbitration, described by peers and clients as an “extremely sharp arbitrator and counsel”, and in 2017 as “a personable, responsive and innovative arbitration specialist” who is praised for her “clever and sophisticated advocacy”. Since 2018, Who’s Who Legal—Arbitration has acknowledged Niuscha Bassiri as a Thought Leader. She is mentioned as “the best in Belgium” and is “‘strongly recommended’ for her impressive work on commercial and investment arbitrations as both counsel and arbitrator”. The highly ranked acknowledgment continued in 2019 for her exceptional practice and praised by peers as an “excellent arbitrator with a great client manner”. Also for 2020, Who’s Who Legal—Arbitration stated that she is “already a leader in the younger generation of arbitrators”, with sources recommending her as “super-organised and insightful”, as well as “extremely knowledgeable in investment arbitration”. Who’s Who Legal—Arbitration 2021 states that she is an “elegant and skillful arbitrator” and has deep “experience in international commercial arbitration and construction” disputes. Peers and clients describe her as an “excellent arbitrator; top speaker and extremely knowledgeable in investment arbitration”. In 2021, the Leaders League also recognized Niuscha Bassiri as one of the five leading lawyers for dispute resolution and international arbitration in Belgium. She is “[h]ighly recommended for her leading investment and commercial arbitration expertise” and has been described as a “very smart and hard-working lawyer” and a “brilliant arbitrator” by peers and clients. She is the only lawyer listed for Belgium in Expert Guides’ Women in Business Law Expert Listings Commercial Arbitration. Who’s Who Legal—Arbitration 2023 describe her as “sharp, quick and attentive to details” who “has an abundance of hands-on experience” and “excellent experience in investment arbitration and energy-related disputes”. Niuscha Bassiri is acknowledged as a Thought Leader and Global Leader in Who’s Who Legal—Arbitration 2023.