Paul Starr is a Partner in the Hong Kong office of King & Wood Mallesons. He is Practice Team Leader in Hong Kong for Construction and Dispute Resolution. Paul's team is several times winner of ALB's Construction Firm of the Year, Arbitration Firm and Deal Team of the Year.
Paul has been based in the Far East since 1985, where he has worked to develop a regional projects law practice particularly in China, Thailand, Taiwan, Philippines, Malaysia and Singapore. Paul has conducted and helped to resolve many of Asia's largest infrastructure disputes - HK$5bn worth of claims at Hong Kong's new airport; a USD$100mil highly confidential arbitation in Hong Kong; disputes over Bangkok Metro and Bangkok New Airport, Taiwan and Korean High Speed Rails, Hong Kong MTR and KCR projects; Marina Square and Bank of China in Singapore; insurance, hotel and residential/golf disputes in China.
Chambers Asia 2010 described Paul as a "razor -sharp, supreme strategist who is attuned to clients... 'able to think really creatively about the issue at hand'."
In recognition of Paul's arbitration expertise in China over the past twenty years, Paul has achieved the great honour of being elected onto the arbitration panel of CIETAC.
In addition to the Who's Who Legal publications (including Construction, Business and Commercial Arbitration), Paul is also named as "Leading Lawyer" in the following publications : IFLR's Guide to the World's Leading Experts in Commercial Arbitration; IFLR's Guide to the World's Leading Litigation Lawyers. The Asia Pacific Legal 500 described “Paul Starr, an ‘exceptional strategist’ and ‘quite simply the best infrastructure lawyer in Asia’, recommended by clients for both contentious and non-contentious work.”
Paul is a past Chairman of the Society of Construction Law Hong Kong and "has developed a regional projects law practice particularly in China, Thailand, Taiwan, the Philippines, Malaysia and Singapore and has helped to resolve many of Asia's largest infrastructure disputes. Strong on arbitration and is on the CIETAC panel". (PLC Which lawyer?, 2010)
It is no coincidence that, when Sweet & Maxwell launched their new textbook "Arbitration in Hong Kong", Paul was their natural choice for writing the Construction section.
Paul is noted by Chambers Asia 2010 as " 'a proficient and sound tactician' who divides his time between construction and general commercial disputes".