Legal System:
Common Law, European Law, International Law
Practice Areas:
Arbitration, Commercial Law, Public international Law
Jurisdiction:
Bulgaria, United Kingdom
Publications
• Stavros Brekoulakis, Julian D M Lew KC & Simona Valkova, “The Growth of the Funding Market in the UK and Beyond”, in S Petit and N Vakil, Funding International Arbitration, Global Law and Business (2024)
• Julian D M Lew QC & Simona Valkova, “Cultures and the Taking of Evidence” in F. Ferrari and F. Rosenfeld, Handbook of Evidence in International Commercial Arbitration: Key Issues and Concepts, Kluwer (2022)
• A Study of International Commercial Arbitration in the Commonwealth published by the Commonwealth Secretariat (2020)
Speaking Engagement:
· 2025 DAA Dutch Arbitration Day, Mind over Matter(s): The Tribunal’s Take: Moderated a panel on “Inside the Tribunal: the Art of Decision-Making”, June 2025
· Pillsbury-YAWP-YMOT-London VYAP-SG VYAP Event During LIDW 2025: Moderated a panel on "The PO 1 Playbook: Strategy, Structure and Pitfalls", June 2025
· Friedrich-Schiller-University Jena, January 2024: “The Importance of Oral Advocacy and the Art of Persuasion – Practical tips and Doss and Don’ts when Answering Questions from the Tribunal”
· The Singapore VYAP & The IAMC, June 2023: “Tribunal Secretaries Demystified”
· Queen Mary University of London, October 2022: “Tribunal Secretaries in International Arbitration”
Teaching
- Assistant Director for the Executive Course on International Investment Law and Arbitration at the School of International Arbitration, Queen Mary University of London - I assist with the organisation and promotion of the course and teach the workshops on investment arbitration
- Teaching Fellow at the School of International Arbitration, Queen Mary University of London - I teach the LLM practice seminars on international commercial and investment arbitration
Education
Master of Laws (LL.M.) in International Business Law at London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE)
Bachelor of Laws (LL.B.) in International and European Law at The Hague University of Applied Science
Other Information
In 2017, I joined the well renowned international arbitration practice group of WilmerHale in London as a visiting foreign lawyer. In that role, I actively contributed to numerous commercial and investment arbitration matters, which allowed me to refine my ability to identify critical issues, assess evidence, and develop compelling legal arguments in support of our clients’ cases. Following this, I worked as a full-time arbitral assistant to Professor Julian Lew KC of Twenty Essex. For over three years, I closely observed his work as an arbitrator in a wide array of international arbitration cases involving complex substantive and procedural issues and learnt from his case management techniques.
Since October 2022, I have been acting as an independent tribunal secretary in a wide range of complex international commercial and investment disputes. This role has allowed me to work closely with distinguished arbitrators across jurisdictions offering unique insight into both the procedural and substantive dimensions of arbitral proceedings, including direct exposure to the deliberations and decision-making process. More recently, I have also started working as a counsel/legal consultant collaborating with law firms based in different parts of the world and providing legal advise on English law (as far as arbitration matters are related) and on international arbitration in general.
