Immediately after leaving (in 1998) employment as General Manager Legal at a large FTSE-listed PLC to go into practice on his own, Hew Dundas was invited to be sole arbitrator in an international dispute between companies from two different (non-UK) European countries where the seat of the arbitration was in Scotland and the substantive law was English. This case was immediately followed by another in SE Asia involving seven parties from five jurisdictions. Arbitration was the way forward. He subsequently qualified as an arbitrator both UK-domestically (FCIArb) and internationally (DipICArb); he won the CIArb President's Prize for the highest mark in any CIArb Award-Writing examination in 2001. He was admitted to the CIArb Panel of Chartered Arbitrators in May 2003.

Hew is a Panel Arbitrator in England, Scotland, Hong King, Kuala Lumpur, Singapore, the PRC, India, Slovenia and the USA (FINRA (New York) and CIDRA (Chicago)).

Hew deals with general commercial cases while specialising in oil and gas, construction, maritime, insurance and financial cases reflecting his extensive experience from >37 years in commerce, mainly involving oil & gas, energy and power. He is a great believer in pro-active use of the applicable legislation in any jurisdiction and is an enthusiastic advocate of streamlined arbitration processes as are now available through any of the world’s leading arbitral institutions. His arbitrations have included ICC, LCIA, SIAC and FINRA international cases, Nigerian domestic and international cases and also Scottish and English domestic cases; the parties involved have included Governments, State-Operated Enterprises and commercial companies of all sizes from giant multinationals to 1-man bands, private parties and individuals; his most recent cases have involved parties from India, Australia, Iraq, Nigeria, USA, Canada, France, Germany, the PRC, UAE, Croatia, Turkey, Russia et al..

Hew was extensively involved in the detailed review and drafting both of the privately-prepared Arbitration (Scotland) Bill 2003 (which was ignored by the then Scottish Government) and of the Arbitration (Scotland) Act 2010 which came into force on 7th June 2010; the 2010 Act is the first ever full codification of Scots arbitration law which, previously, comprised over 800 years of case law and a very limited range of statutory provisions.. Utilising that experience, he co-authored the definitive book “Dundas & Bartos on the Arbitration (Scotland) Act 2010” (2nd edn pub. W Green & Co August 2014; ISBN 978-0-414-01927-0). He is also co-Author of the ICCA National Report on Việt Nam (2012; revised 2015).

Hew has also written extensively about arbitration law and has published >200 articles in journals in the UK, USA, Hong Kong, India, Russia and Kazakhstan. He used to write and publish his own arbitration newsletter with recipients in approx. 40 countries. He has contributed to several leading books including “A Liber Amicorum Thomas Wälde: Law Beyond Conventional Thought” (pub. Cameron May 2009; ISBN 978-1-907174-01-8); “International Arbitration and International Commercial Law: Synergy, Convergence and Evolution – A Liber Amicorum Eric Bergsten” (pub. Kluwer 2011; ISBN 978-9-0411-3522-3); “Arbitration in England & Wales with Chapters on Scotland and Ireland” (pub. Kluwer 2014; ISBN 978-9-0411-3998-6); Co-Author of “The Danubia Files – Award-Writing Lessons from the Vis Moot” (pub. Outskirts Press 2013; ISBN 978-1-4787-1179-7); Co-Author of the Scottish chapter in “Interim Measures in International Arbitration” (eds. Newman/Ong; pub. Juris 2015; ISBN 978-1-937518-40-0).

Allied to his extensive publishing record, Hew is a visiting lecturer in international dispute resolution law at Edinburgh University, Aberdeen University and the Centre for Energy and Petroleum and Mineral Law and Policy at the University of Dundee. He has also lectured at Northumbria, Kingston, Brunel and Hull Universities in the UK and at universities in Austria, the PRC, Ecuador and Malaysia.

Hew holds several offices including being Honorary Vice President, Scottish Arbitration Centre, Chairman of the Advisory Board of the Hamburg-based Chinese European Arbitration Centre and Presidente Honorario, Centro International de Arbitraje e Mediación (Quito)

In 2005 the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators (“CIArb”; approx. 14,000 members in 120+ countries) adopted a new, electoral, procedure for selecting its Presidents and Hew became the 3rd elected President, serving in 2007 in succession to Presidents from Austria and Hong Kong. As President he visited Beirut, Singapore, Kuala Lumpur, Stockholm, Chicago, New York, Washington DC, Vienna, Hong Kong and most of the CIArb’s UK branches as well as new (for the CIArb) territory in Quito, Bogotá and La Paz, in the latter case setting a new Presidential altitude record of 4,420 meters (14,500’). As well as visiting CIArb members in Branches and Chapters, colleague arbitral institutions and academic institutions, he held constructive discussions with Chief Justices, Minsters of Justice and other high-level figures.

Hew has been active in the City of London Livery and was Master of the Worshipful Company of Arbitrators for 2011-12. He is the most widely-seen Arbitrator in the world, ever, having been seen by a TV viewing audience of 300-320 million (including the equivalent of “Nine O’Clock News” in KL) on 5th June 2012 hosting HRH the Duke of Cambridge at the Diamond Jubilee Luncheon for Her Majesty The Queen in Westminster Hall.

He is also a Liveryman of each of the Worshipful Company of Shipwrights and the Honourable Company Master Mariners, is a Freeman of the Worshipful Company of Musicians and a member of the Merchant Company of Edinburgh. He is also both a Freeman of the City of London and a Burgess of the City of Edinburgh, a very rare double.

Hew is founder and Chairman of the Oil & Gas Branch of the Arbitration Club, Co-Founder of the Maritime Branch and a member of the Commodities and Law Courts Branches and of the International Arbitration Club.