Zhao Fang

Introduction

Zhao Fang is the managing partner of Hui Zhong Law Firm’s Shanghai office. Zhao has been practising PRC law for 25 years. She was also called to the Bar of England and Wales. Zhao was appointed as a court member of the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC) in July 2024. She has been acting for clients from a wide range of industries before Chinese courts including the Supreme People’s Court and various international arbitration institutions including the ICC, the Hong Kong International Arbitration Centre (HKIAC), the Singapore International Arbitration Centre (SIAC), the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS), the Swiss Arbitration Commission and the German Arbitration Institute.

Zhao’s expertise lies in international trade, foreign investment, Sino-foreign joint venture, energy, telecommunications, construction, IP, employment, sports and entertainment. Other

than a trial lawyer, she is on the official panel lists of the HKIAC, the SIAC, the China International Economic and Trade Arbitration Commission (CIETAC), the Beijing Arbitration Commission (BAC), the Sharm El Sheikh International Arbitration Centre (SHIAC), and the Shenzhen Court of International Arbitration (SCIA). She is an accredited civil-commercial mediator at ADR-ODR International in London, and was invited by the Qianhai Cooperation Zone People’s Court as a court mediator for foreign-related cases. Zhao is a visiting lecturer at the law schools of Peking University, Fudan University, Jiaotong University, Remin University, China University of Political Science and Law, University of International Business and Economics, and others.

Chambers and Partners ranks Zhao in both the global and Asian sectors as one of the leading practitioners in the field of arbitration in China. Excerpts from her Chambers profile include: “Many sources highlight that she is also called to the Bar of England and Wales”; “Zhao Fang is experienced acting on domestic and international arbitration cases relating to the energy, financial services and manufacturing sectors. She receives a lot of praise from market sources”; “Her attention to detail is second to none; she knows the case inside out, is hyper-responsive and has an extremely quick grasp of the crucial aspects of the case”; “Her advocacy is excellent with strong logic. Her argument will leave the opponent at a loss for words”; and “Zhao Fang has a deep understanding of the laws and knows about our commercial needs”.

Zhao represented the Chinese Olympic champion Sun Yang in his case against the World Anti-Doping Agency and World Aquatics (formerly the International Swimming Federation) concerning a violation of anti-doping rules. She successfully appealed to the Swiss Supreme Court to set aside the first arbitration award made by the CAS, achieving a comprehensive retrial in the second arbitration, which ultimately led to the penalty being halved.

She also represented the Bank of China in a dispute concerning demand guarantee against the Union of Arab and French Banks, a case that was selected as one of the Supreme People’s Court’s fourth batch of typical cases related to the Belt and Road Initiative. In this case, she secured a reversal of the second-instance judgment before the Supreme People’s Court. This was the first time the court ruled that a bank had engaged in “abuse of rights” in demanding payment under a demand guarantee, providing groundbreaking clarification on the concept of “good faith payment”.

Zhao sat as the sole arbitrator for more than 40 cases administered by the HKIAC, the BAC, the SHIAC and the SCIA. She sat as the presiding arbitrator for around 15 cases administered by the BAC and the SHIAC. She also sat as a co-arbitrator for around 30 cases administered by the ICC, the HKIAC, the CIETAC, the BAC, the SHIAC and the SCIA.

Zhao has been a long-term contributor to the arbitration section of the China Commercial Dispute Resolution Annual Review published by the BAC/Beijing International Arbitration Center. Her work has been widely praised in the industry for its depth and breadth of analysis.

She is a co-author of Foreign Related Laws and Practice (China Renmin University Press, 2020), the Annual China Arbitration Report for Panoramic (formerly Getting the Deal Through) from 2014 to 2020; and City University Hong Kong, Dispute Resolution Yearbook: Interim Remedies in the People’s Republic of China, 2020.