#10QuestionswithMaxwell Interview Series: Mohammed Talib, Pinsent Masons

In this #10QuestionsWithMaxwell interview, we feature Mohammed Talib, Partner of Pinsent Masons.

Mohammed is a construction and engineering lawyer and has acted in a wide range of construction disputes. With extensive experience in international arbitration, he’s a trusted advocate for construction and engineering firms in some of their most challenging disputes. He’s handled major cases like a $55 million claim for a Japanese contractor in Southeast Asia, a high-stakes rail project dispute in the Middle East, and addressing defects for a Korean contractor in Chile. His work has taken him across the globe, with a particular focus on ICC arbitration, making him a go-to expert in navigating complex, multi-jurisdictional cases.

Talib is recognized for his strategic and technical expertise in construction disputes, offering comprehensive legal solutions across multiple jurisdictions. His practice also includes advisory roles in project delivery and dispute avoidance, often sharing his thoughts related to construction arbitration related topics.

In this interview, Mohammed shares his experiences and journey in arbitration, advice for younger aspiring arbitrators, 3 fun facts about himself, and more.

Read the full interview below:

Q: Could you share with us your arbitration journey, and what drew you to specialise in construction arbitration?

Like so many of life’s most impactful moments, my first involvement in a construction arbitration was an accident. I was studying a master’s degree in corporate and financial law and had grand delusions of becoming a barrister at the time. In the middle of the year, a friend told me that Pinsent Masons was looking for a paralegal to support it on a large construction arbitration. I decided I would give it a go, they hired me for the role, and that was my first taste of arbitration. I was hooked from the start, mostly because I felt I was working for a firm full of magicians (to steal unashamedly from Arthur C Clarke, any sufficiently skilled legal practice is indistinguishable from magic) and I wanted to learn how to do this. I was fortunate to start my training a year later with Pinsent Masons specialising afterwards in construction arbitration.

I have always enjoyed construction arbitration because working on large projects gives you a unique insight into how the modern world is made. Although a lot of us will travel through airports, ride subways, take tunnels and go to amusement parks, the project and arbitrations I have worked out have given me insight and appreciation of just how challenging it is to transform the world. It takes great knowledge, skill, courage and effort, and I have been taught about some of that from world-class architects, engineers and surveyors in many of the arbitrations that I have worked on.

Q: Can you share a memorable experience or case from your career that significantly impacted your approach to arbitration?

When you are a junior lawyer, you think that arbitration is about the merits, the process, the tribunal and the result. As I have gotten older, I have started to appreciate how arbitration is about people and their varied personalities.

I first learned this on a large arbitration for an architect’s firm who we were helping to defend in a USD 200m negligence claim. I was tasked to interview and prepare a witness statement from the lead designer on the project. Before that I was warned by everyone in our team and even in the client’s team, that he was extremely busy, could be demanding, was no-nonsense and I would only have a small chance of getting useful information from him even if I made the best of the small slice of time he had for me in his calendar. In my head, this was a classic case of architect as prima donna, and I was terrified that I was going to mess up the interview and alienate a key witness. I was convinced that when this (inevitably) happened I would probably get removed from the case.

My preparation for that first meeting was all designed to be direct and to the point – all about the issues in the arbitration and getting the evidence captured. The witness, to my surprise, spent time to build a rapport with me, helped me understand his way of thinking, and shared what issues he had focused on during the project. We were able to build a way forward that he liked and I thought was good for the arbitration, and this laid the foundation for an extremely good relationship that lasted all the way to the hearing, and has continued to this day. People have an infinite capacity to surprise, no matter what you have heard about them, and no matter what your own pre-conceptions might be.

Q: What advice would you give to younger practitioners seeking a career in dispute resolution?

A career in dispute resolution gives you a chance to experience a small slice of the complexity of the world. It lets you meet people trying to make big changes in the world, and to work with people and on projects that will defy your sense of scale and understanding. Some of the people you meet, you will ask them to recount the worse days of their personal or professional lives. On the other hand, you will meet many who see the arbitration as irrelevant and an inconvenience.

Accordingly, what I would advise to younger practitioners is to be open and flexible in relation to the people that they encounter in their careers. Many problems in a disputes career are legal problems and lawyers are well suited to those challenges from their training and disposition. Yet, some of the most important challenges in arbitrations will be dealing with people problems. Don’t apply your legal mind and your legal way of thinking, to solving problems that are not legal.

I would also add how important it is to embrace new technology in disputes resolution, I have a bit more to say about that in Q7.

Q: Where do you see future opportunities in construction arbitration?

There is no doubt that we need a lot from the infrastructure sector in the next decades.

We have to make tremendous changes in how we generate energy, transport people and goods, manage water resources, and build resilient cities to address climate change and environmental degradation. We also need to transition from, and decommission, a lot of legacy assets like fossil fuel powerplants.

That requires a lot of construction, and it requires it to be carried out in new ways suited to delivering a sustainable future.

At the same time, especially in Asia, we have a vast amount of infrastructure that is being built and needs to be built as economies grow. Just India alone has over USD 1 trillion of infrastructure investments planned over the coming years.

Emerging markets are also increasingly adopting arbitration-friendly laws and establishing new local arbitration centers to attract foreign investment for infrastructure and natural resource development projects.

As these projects are delivered, markets mature and arbitration becomes more mainstream, I expect we will see a lot of need for construction arbitration to help parties resolve their disputes.

With construction projects becoming more global, there is a need for lawyers who understand international arbitration and can handle multi-jurisidictional disputes.

Q: What are your go-to resources to stay updated with the latest developments and trends in arbitration?

Those who know me will tell you that I am a LinkedIn junkie. But part of the reason that I really enjoy using LinkedIn is that it is a great resource for getting updates about the latest developments and trends from around the world about what is going on. Alongside the people sharing their latest achievements and awards, you can find people dedicated to sharing their experience, latest developments in their jurisdictions and also insight into arbitral practice and procedure. It has taken me some time to curate the list of the right people to follow, but I now find out about some of the most interesting arbitral developments very quickly.

Q: What has been the most rewarding aspect in your career, and what keeps you motivated?

I enjoy understanding how the world works, and large infrastructure arbitration sits at the nexus of so many political, geographical, engineering and financial challenges, that you inevitably learn a lot about how the world fits together at multiple levels when you work on these disputes.

I also find it very fulfilling to dive deep into the technical, contractual and legal details of a construction matter, analyze it from all angles, and then work collaboratively with the client to develop an effective solution or legal strategy. Although I probably shouldn’t say this here, the most rewarding work is where we have been able to achieve a favorable result through negotiation or mediation and have saved the client the ‘ordeal’ of arbitration or litigation.

What keeps me motivated is the dynamic, fast-paced nature of the construction industry and the intellectual challenges it presents. The industry encompasses a wide range of projects, and every project is unique, so I am constantly learning, growing, and stretching my abilities.

Q: What role do you believe technology will play in the future of arbitration, and how can practitioners best prepare for this change?

I have really enjoyed the explosion in AI tools over the last few years and have been playing around with the use of AI for some time now.

I believe the AI revolution is going to blow away everything we have previously encountered when it comes to the use of technology in arbitration and will make the COVID transition to virtual hearings for example look simple and straightforward.

There are a host of challenges for practitioners when it comes to the use (and abuse) of AI. The first is identifying the right tools – there are hundreds of legal AI startups and more continue to launch every day doing hundreds of different things in every area of legal practice.

Secondly, each new tool requires new skills to use effectively. For example, using even relatively user friendly tools like ChatGPT or Copilot require you to have some understanding of how to effectively prompt these tools. Pinsent Masons have run a pilot for some time now with Copilot, and so I have been able to integrate it into my work, learn some of these skills and see first head some of the efficiency it can generate.

Thirdly, these are not individual changes but often require team changes. Integrating AI might require changes to business processes, upskilling the team on AI fundamentals, analyzing AI-generated outputs critically, and grasping AI’s limitations

In construction arbitrations, and on construction projects, we are already seeing tools developed that can search through 1000s of documents in real time to monitor projects and identify potential disputes, generate comparisons between drawings, compare construction programmes, and carry out other work that would have required extensive human input all now done using automated and AI tools.

As the scale of application continues to ramp up, there will be a radical transformation in the way that construction arbitrations are carried out.

Q: What are your goals and aspirations for the next phase of your career in arbitration?

I have only been a partner for a few years now, so I’m still getting to grips with this phase of my career. There have been a lot of learning for me when it comes to working with new and existing clients and managing large disputes. I have also started doing more of my own advocacy, and this is something I am looking forward to developing further. I see it as a return in a way to my original aspiration to be a barrister, but at a stage in my career where I am much better equipped to take on that challenge in the large scale and complex arbitrations we regularly are instructed on.

At the same time there are two causes that are very important to me in the next phase of my career. The first is mental health in arbitration, which tends to be overlooked. There is no doubt that arbitration can be a source of stress for arbitrators, institutions, counsel and experts. Not all of that stress is necessary. I think there is an important conversation we should be having about how to increase mental health and wellbeing for arbitration practitioners, and how this can be achieved in a way that increases efficiency and cost effectiveness.

The second is that we are going through an unprecedent boom in Asia for arbitration. Arbitration continues to rise in popularity, new institutions are being launched, thousands of students are being taught the fundamentals of arbitration for the first time and new practitioners are coming in well equipped with theoretical arbitration knowledge. A lot more practical training is needed and my experience is that practice can differ wildly from theory in arbitration. I think there is an important conversation we should be having about how to talk about the reality of arbitration rather than the ideal version of arbitration in the textbooks.

Q: To get to know you more on a personal level, tell us 3 fun facts about yourself.

1. I have only worked for one law firm in my whole career, but I have joined it three times – once as a paralegal, again as a trainee, and after a year working for the Hong Kong judiciary again as a newly qualified lawyer.

2. I am an avid reader, and especially enjoy a good locked room mystery. I’m particularly a fan of the Sherlock Holmes stories as well as anything written by Agatha Christie. Reasoning backwards to the truth in the face of limited evidence and unreliable narrators is, of course, nothing like arbitration.

3. I never learned to drive. This is one of the side effects of growing up in Hong Kong which is a compact city with world class public transport. My wife is our designated driver. I am, however, a massive Formula 1 fan.

Q: What influenced your decision to make Hong Kong your permanent base, and how has this shaped your perspective and approach to international arbitration?

Hong Kong has always been home. My parents moved out to Hong Kong in the 1970s and so I always saw myself as staying in Hong Kong for my legal career. Hong Kong is always a dynamic and entrepreneurial place and there is always something new happening.

Hong Kong has shaped my approach to international arbitration in many ways, but one of the things I have started to appreciate is how many things Hong Kong has let me take for granted when it comes to arbitration.

Having a modern arbitration law, a world-class institution, strategic location in Asia, supportive pro-arbitration courts, and sophisticated counsel and experts is not something that can be taken for granted in many other arbitral seats. So many things that make an individual arbitration run smoothly depend on these elements all working away in the background.

As I have worked on arbitrations in a wider range of jurisdictions around the world, talking to the local practitioners and understanding how the presence (and absence) of these elements shapes the local arbitration culture and practice has always made me appreciate Hong Kong as an arbitral hub.