Blair is an associate in the Paris office. He has experience in a variety of international commercial arbitrations under several institutional rules in industries including construction, energy, and port operations. He also has experience advising States and non-governmental organisations on matters of public international law, which is his primary academic focus, with an emphasis on human rights and national security.

Blair’s recent experience includes:

• Successfully defending a major Middle Eastern natural gas company’s termination of a sale and purchase agreement in an expedited LCIA arbitration
• Representing an international energy company in a multibillion-dollar ad hoc commercial arbitration arising out of a national oil company’s failure to supply gas under a long-term contract
• Representing an African company in an LCIA arbitration against a global port operator in a dispute arising from the termination of a joint venture agreement
• Representing a European gambling operator in an LCIA arbitration against a State in a force majeure dispute under a concession agreement
• Advising a global energy major on issues arising from terrorist attacks near a project site
• Advising a European energy infrastructure company on delay and performance bond issues arising under an EPC contract for a power plant in Africa
• Advising a European construction company on delay issues arising under an Algerian construction contract

Blair has made numerous appearances in the New Zealand courts, including the High Court, and was the sole solicitor acting on a two-year bifurcated commercial arbitration, with favourable awards upheld on appeal. His note, “Cutting Submarine Cables: The Legality of the Use of Force in Self-Defense” was recently published in the Duke Journal of Comparative & International Law, and he is a New Zealand contributor to the World Bank’s “Women, Business and the Law” reports.

Blair holds an LLM from Duke University School of Law in the U.S., where he graduated magna cum laude, was a Staff Editor for the Duke Journal of Comparative and International Law, and contributed to submissions to the U.S. Department of State’s Commission on Unalienable Rights as part of the International Human Rights Clinic. He also graduated from the University of Otago in New Zealand with an LLB and a BA. Whilst there he won the SDS International Business Case Competition with the Otago Business School team and spent time studying at the Eberhard Karls University of Tübingen in Germany. Blair is admitted to practise in New Zealand and New York.