Tarunima Vijra is Senior Counsel at van den Berg Arbitration.
She sits as arbitrator, tribunal secretary and assistant to the tribunal in international commercial and investment arbitrations as well as in domestic India-seated arbitrations. She also acts as counsel in international arbitrations and in court litigation related to setting aside and enforcement of arbitral awards.
Tarunima has significant experience practising under a variety of institutional rules (CEPANI, DIFC-LCIA, ICC, ICSID, LCIA, MCIA, NAI, SCC, SIAC) and in ad hoc arbitrations, including under the UNCITRAL Rules. Her experience covers a range of industry sectors, including aviation, banking, broadcasting, construction and infrastructure, energy, food and beverage, luxury and leisure, mining, oil and gas, payment cards, retail, steel, telecommunications and third-party funding.
As counsel, recent instructions include representing the Republic of India in setting aside, revocation and enforcement proceedings concerning investment treaty awards issued in the satellite telecommunications and technology sector before the state courts in Belgium and the Netherlands. She also represented India in setting aside proceedings leading to the successful annulment of an investment award following the discovery of tax fraud by the claimants in India.
Tarunima regularly writes and teaches on issues related to international commercial and investment arbitration. Amongst others, she has authored the Kluwer Practical Insights module on “Joinder and Consolidation in Arbitral Proceedings”. She lectures in credit and diploma courses on international commercial and investment arbitration at the National Law University, Delhi (India). She is a faculty member of the Delos Dispute Resolution’s Writing Awards Course, offering the training module for tribunal secretaries. She is a member and rapporteur of the IBA Task Force on the “Nationality of the Arbitrator as a Proxy for Independence and Impartiality”.
Previously, Tarunima was with Hanotiau & van den Berg in Brussels and Shardul Amarchand Mangaldas in New Delhi.
Tarunima graduated with a Bachelors of Arts and of Laws (B.A.LL.B (Hons.)) from the West Bengal National University of Juridical Sciences, Kolkata, India. She received an LL.M in International Dispute Settlement (MIDS) from the Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies and the University of Geneva.
She is admitted to practice with the Bar Council of New Delhi and is registered with the Brussels Bar (B-list). She is a native speaker of English and Hindi.