He has served as lead counsel and arbitrator in over 100 complex commercial and treaty cases, and as adviser to sovereign governments and corporate clients on matters of public international law, including treaty obligations, State responsibility, human rights, sanctions, law reform, and maritime and territorial boundaries. Proceedings in which he has acted range in value from tens of millions to multiple billions of dollars, often involving multiple parties and complex claims. He works across common-law and civil-law systems, public international law, European Union law, and Sharīʿa commercial law. He has arbitrated and served as counsel under all major arbitral regimes, including the AAA/ICDR, DIAC, ICC, ICSID, ICSID Additional Facility, LCIA, SIAC, SCC, WIPO, and UNCITRAL rules.

His primary specializations are in the energy and extractives industries — oil and gas, LNG, power generation and transmission, energy-sector infrastructure, and mining and minerals. He has also handled significant engagements in construction, technology and intellectual property, telecommunications, hospitality, banking and finance, and life sciences, often in settings where linguistic, cultural, or geopolitical factors have shaped how the dispute arose and how it is understood and managed.

He has served in disputes arising under bilateral and multilateral investment treaties, free trade agreements, foreign investment laws, and a wide variety of contractual instruments, including EPC, EPCM, FIDIC, and other construction contracts; power purchase agreements; oilfield services agreements; LNG and LPG supply and transportation agreements; production sharing agreements; joint operating agreements; private equity and M&A agreements; tax and legal stability agreements; intellectual property licensing agreements; joint venture agreements; and hotel management agreements.

Arif’s professional background includes senior positions with two Geneva-based international organizations (United Nations Compensation Commission, WIPO Arbitration and Mediation Centre), and private practice with leading global law firms, including as chair of the international arbitration and public international law groups of three AmLaw 100 firms.

He works in English and Spanish, has professional reading proficiency in French and Portuguese legal materials, and is conversant in those languages as well as Urdu, Hindi, and Bengali.