Hasit Seth

Practice Summary

Hasit is a dual-qualified counsel, arbitrator and mediator with close to three decades of law practice across India, the United States, and increasingly Eurasia and the Indian Ocean region. He has been admitted to the rolls of the Bar Council of India (Maharashtra & Goa) since 1999, New York State Bar since 2004, and the AIFC Court in Kazakhstan in 2024. He is a Fellow (FCIArb) and a faculty member of the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators.

His core practice sits at the intersection of international arbitration, commercial litigation, technology, and contracts. The sectors covered by his practice are construction, IP and patents, finance, trade, technology, cryptocurrency, artificial intelligence, securities, and commercial disputes. He appears regularly before the Supreme Court of India and the Bombay High Court. The Bombay High Court has appointed him as an arbitrator multiple time. As counsel, his notable arbitration matters include successfully defending an Indian chemical engineering company against a EUR 10 million claim brought by a Russian company and acting as first chair counsel in a USD 72 million PPP-BOT (DBFOT) road construction arbitration and a USD 12 million Mumbai Monorail construction arbitration.

As arbitrator, Hasit has been appointed as chair, sole arbitrator, and panel arbitrator by international arbitral institutions and courts. He has arbitrated disputes spanning construction, tunnelling, shipbuilding, commercial contracts, securities, housing, and partnerships. As mediator, he has many successful mediations to his credit, including the first dispute before the DIFC Courts' Mediation Service Centre, Dubai, where he holds listed mediator status. He is a Harvard Law School-trained negotiator.

Hasit is listed as an arbitrator, mediator or both with over thirty international arbitration and mediation institutions including: HKIAC (Hong Kong), SIAC (Singapore), DIAC (Dubai), VIAC (Vienna), WIPO (Geneva), AIAC (Bangkok), THAC (Bangkok), RAC (Moscow), KIAC (Kigali), SHIAC (Shanghai), MIAC (Maldives), PMAC of the European Unified Patent Court,  Bombay High Court, Punjab & Haryana High Court, Kerala High Court, Gujarat International Maritime Arbitration Centre (GIMAC), IIAC (New Delhi), DIFC Court’s Mediation Service Centre, and Asian Development Bank’s  Workplace Mediation.

Hasit writes and teaches regularly on international arbitration and construction law. The Madras High Court has cited one of his articles in Ramesh Flowers (P) Ltd. v Sumit Srimal 2024 SCC OnLine Mad 4785.

Uniquely, Hasit is the sole inventor of two US patents, both licensed out, in cloud computing technologies: 
1. US 9,160,681 - Spiral protocol for iterative service level agreement (SLA) execution in cloud migration.

2. US 8,949,654 - Parameterized dynamic model for cloud migration.

Previously, Hasit worked with two US law firms in Detroit and New York. His work there focussed on US patent prosecution and disputes. He was also the Asia Patent Manager for a large multi-national manufacturing company in the diversified industrial sector. He worked at a US company licensing out the patent portfolios of British Telecom, France Telecom, and Xerox. During his US years, he passed the United States Patent & Trademark Office’s Patent Agent exam (“US Patent Bar”) and the NCEES’ Fundamentals of Engineering (Professional Engineer – Part 1) Exam.

He is the founder of the Centre for Trial & Arbitration Advocacy Research (CTAAR) that organises advocacy training programmes. Hasit is an ambassador for the Cross Examination Moot; an international student competition held in Paris that promotes cross-examination skills. He is a Senior Fellow (Visiting) at the School of Law, Dhirubhai Ambani University, India where he teaches construction law.

He is fluent in English, Hindi, Marathi, and Gujarati.