Khushboo Shahdadpuri

Khushboo Shahdadpuri is a Partner at Al Tamimi & Company focusing on international dispute resolution and arbitration. Her primary practice area is Arbitration and Mediation, and she is dual qualified in Singapore and New York.

She focuses on construction, infrastructure, energy, financial, joint venture, technology and real estate development arbitrations. Her experience includes international arbitration matters under the rules of the ICC, SIAC, DIAC, LCIA, LMAA, QICCA, JAMS, SCC, as well as ad-hoc arbitration proceedings under the UNCITRAL rules and the Permanent Court of Arbitration. She also actively attempts to find suitable opportunities for settlement for her clients.

She has been recognised as one of the top 50 lawyers in the Asian Legal Business 2024 rankings, ranked as a Global Elite Thought Leaders Under 45 in Arbitration and a Future Leader in Construction in Lexology (formerly Who's Who Legal), and a Rising Star by Legal 500 for her expertise in construction disputes. She was recently shortlisted for the IFLR Women in Business Law Awards 2025 in the EMEA Commercial Arbitration category. Her clients describe her as "a stand out" performer, "commercially minded with outstanding legal skills and a work ethic that is second to none," with "a deep understanding of both construction law and international arbitration."

She has extensive experience dealing with arbitration matters under both civil and common law, and regularly works with barristers and King's Counsel as well as local counsel on arbitration-related litigation matters before the courts in the UK, Singapore, Switzerland, UAE, Qatar, Lebanon, Kuwait, India and Malaysia, among others.

She serves as Regional Lead for EMEA in the YSIAC Council, Associate Editor of the Kluwer Arbitration Blog where she heads the MENA and India teams, Global Steering Committee member of the Equal Representation of Expert Witnesses (ERE), member of SIAC's User Council, MENA sub-committee member in the Campaign for Greener Arbitrations, Building and Construction Law Committee member of the Law Society of Singapore, Executive Committee of the UAE chapter of ENERAP, and the MENA representative for the Energy Disputes Arbitration Centre.

She also sits as arbitrator and has been appointed as sole arbitrator, chair of the arbitral tribunal and party-nominated arbitrator in a number of commercial and construction arbitration matters.

Her recent experience includes acting for Indian contractors in a complex and high-value DIAC arbitration where the value of the dispute exceeds AED 700 million and involves intricate facility and banking-related issues; acting for a high-net-worth individual in a confidential financial-related arbitration matter where the value of the dispute exceeds USD 300 million; and acting for a number of contractors in ICC arbitrations where the issues involve disruption to transportation routes due to the severing of political ties between certain countries.

She represented a joint venture comprising a public-listed corporation in Italy in a multi-party ICC arbitration arising out of a football stadium for the Qatar FIFA World Cup 2022, where the value of the dispute exceeded USD 650 million and entailed complex arguments related to contractual interpretation of liability clauses, admissibility of claims and counterclaims, and design development issues. She also represented a major bank in the UAE on a construction arbitration under the DIAC rules, seated in Dubai and governed under UAE laws, involving the suspension of a site due to slab collapse, safety issues, fatalities and defective works in a prominent UAE development project.

Other matters include representing a Turkish oil company against a government entity in an Iraq oil and gas project; representing a leading F&B holding group in the UAE in a DIFC-LCIA arbitration pertaining to the termination of a franchise agreement; and representing a Middle East government entity in a technical solar power plant ICC arbitration involving complex legal issues arising out of English and Qatari law, where the value of the dispute exceeded USD 60 million.

She has also acted for a Middle Eastern government entity in a technical construction arbitration of a museum project in Kuwait seated in Dubai and governed by Kuwaiti law under the JAMS Arbitration Rules; represented a prominent Qatari corporation in a complex construction ICC arbitration seated in Doha and governed under Qatari law, with claims and counterclaims exceeding QAR 300 million; and advised an international conglomerate in a multi-party oil and gas dispute arising out of the construction of a high-profile LNG pipeline project in Qatar where the value of the dispute exceeded USD 1 billion, working with international experts until the successful settlement of the matter.

She holds an LL.M. (Harlan Fiske Stone Scholar) from Columbia Law School (2016) and an LL.B. (Hons) from King's College London (2010). She was admitted to the Dubai Legal Affairs Department (Legal Consultant) in 2022, the State of New York in 2018 and Singapore in 2013. She speaks English, Hindi, Malay and Bahasa Indonesia.