Mian Sami ud-Din is a Partner at the law firm Bhandari Naqvi Riaz in Pakistan and has been practising since 2008 after qualifying as a Barrister in England. He is an Advocate of the Supreme Court of Pakistan and a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators.

He has a broad commercial disputes practice often involving international elements. He also advises and works on transactions for commercial clients and is among the first in Pakistan to work on Climate Finance transactions. His experience includes dealing with matters arising out of the technology, media and telecommunication sector; energy sector, financial sector; corporate sector; intellectual property; construction and infrastructure; and international trade.

He is engaged by clients to act as counsel before the Supreme Court, the High Courts, regulatory bodies (SECP, NEPRA, CCP, OGRA etc) and before international arbitral tribunals. His international arbitration experience includes acting and advising in respect of matters under the LCIA, ICC, SIAC, UNICTRAL and ICSID rules. His expertise includes Public and Private International Law, English law, EU law, Indian law, Singaporean law, and Korean law.

Sami has also been appointed as an arbitrator and takes appointments in both international and domestic arbitrations. He is on the panel of arbitrators of the Singapore International Arbitration Centre (reserve panel) and Korean Commercial Arbitration Board. He is a member of the ADR Task Force set up under the auspices of the Law and Justice Commission of Pakistan (LJCP). Previously, he was co-opted as a member of the Arbitration Law Review Committee of the LJCP and co-drafted the Arbitration Bill 2024 based on the UNCITRAL Model Law on International Commercial Arbitration. He has also been part of the Government of Pakistan’s Working Group of Experts on Pakistan’s Investment Regime Reforms and advised on International Investment Agreements and Investor-State Dispute Settlement reforms.

He is ranked as a Band 3 practitioner by the international directory Chambers and Partners in General Commercial Dispute Resolution in Pakistan. Client testimonials noted by Chambers and Partners have said that he has a “‘very masterful understanding of disputes matters,’” and describe him as “‘an excellent arbitration lawyer’”. Legal 500 notes client testimonials saying that “Mian Sami Ud Din is excellent, very sharp and well-informed, and definitely a future leader of the profession in Pakistan.”

Sami is a former rugby union and rugby league player (2004 to 2014) and played club rugby for the Islamabad Rugby Football Club aka “Jinns” and played nationally and internationally. He was also selected for the under 19 Pakistan Rugby Union national side. He has also played for the Pakistan Rugby League national side in two international matches against the British and Asian Rugby Association (BARA) and the UAE teams. Sami is now a qualified World Rugby Judicial Officer and volunteers his time to hear disciplinary matters arising out of official rugby matches under the World Rugby Regulations. He has been appointed by the Pakistan Rugby Union as a Judicial Officer and has heard disciplinary matters since 2016.

Prior to his current law firm, Sami worked at a leading law firm in Islamabad where he headed the Dispute Resolution department and worked on international and domestic dispute matters. In the initial stages of his career, he also worked in London for two years for a commercial law firm and was involved in high value commercial dispute matters, including offshore litigation taking place in the British Overseas Territories.