Paul Cohen (lawyer)

Paul Henri Cohen (born December 1967) is a British lawyer, author and arbitration counsellor.^[1] Called to the bar in 2011, his work has included representing alleged descendants of the last Sultan of the Sulu Empire against Malaysia in a multi-billion-dollar case involving Sabah and a colonial-era agreement.

Paul H. Cohen
Nationality	British/American
Education	University of Pennsylvania (BA) University of Oxford (PhD, Political Science)
Occupation	Lawyer
Organization	4-5 Gray’s Inn Square

Education

Cohen earned his bachelor’s degree from University of Pennsylvania and received a doctorate in Political Science from the University of Oxford.^[2]

He was a post-doctoral research fellow at Harvard University and earned his JD from the Columbia Law School. He was also the editor of Human Rights Law Review.^[3]

Career

After completing his education, Cohen worked as an associate at Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison for seven years between 1998 and 2005.

He was called to the bar of Middle Temple in 2011.^[4] Cohen worked as a partner and co-head of arbitration practice with Thompson & Knight LLP 2011 to 2014.^[5] He also remained a partner and co-head of arbitration practice at Perkins Coie LLP from 2014 to 2016.^[6][7]

In 2013, he joined 4-5 Gray’s Inn Square as barrister at law.^[2] In 2022, he became president of the Silicon Valley Arbitration & Mediation Center (SVAMC).

He is the director at Duncan, Cohen and Associates Limited.^[1]

According to Arizona State University’s Lodestar Dispute Resolution Center, Cohen is “known for his work and writing on technology in arbitration, particularly the intersection and interaction of dispute resolution and emerging technologies”.^[8]

Cohen has written extensively on international corruption, arbitration,^[9] investigation,^[10] and the role of technology in arbitration.^[11]

Malaysia-Sulu case

Cohen, and Elisabeth Mason of 4-5 Gray’s Inn Square, represented alleged descendants of the last Sultan of the Sulu Empire against Malaysia in a case involving Sabah and a colonial-era agreement. The 1878 agreement involved a deal with the Sulu sultan for the use of his territory now falling in present-day Malaysia. The Malaysian government continued honoring the agreement until 2013 and stopped payment henceforth, leading to the arbitration case.

Cohen’s clients demanded US$32 billion in compensation.^[12] However, in January 2022, Spanish arbitrator Gonzalo Stampa ruled in favor of claimants, awarding a settlement of US$15 billion,^[13] the largest arbitration award in history.^[14][15][16] He made this announcement despite the Madrid High Court annulling his appointment as arbitrator in June 2021.^[17] In May 2024 the Madrid Court of Appeal upheld a contempt of court conviction and sentence against Stampa, upholding his six-month prison sentence, and a one-year ban from practicing as an arbitrator.^[18] Former Spanish Judge Josep Galvez — barrister at 4-5 Gray's Inn Square Chambers, which the lawyers of Sulu claimants Paul Cohen and Elisabeth mason also associate with — said the Madrid Court’s ruling underscored the importance of rigorous compliance with procedural requirements and judicial orders under Spanish law, as failure to do so could invite severe penalties.^[19] “The conviction of Stampa serves as a lesson for international arbitration practitioners, emphasizing the paramount importance of adhering to judicial orders in Spain,” he wrote.^[20]

While Cohen and the alleged Sulu heirs have engaged in a long practice of "forum shopping" to enforce the controversial $15 billion award,^[21] Malaysia has secured back-to-back victories in Spain, Luxembourgh, and the Netherlands, with the French Court of Cassation's recent decisive ruling in November 2024 marking what legal experts see as the end of the six-year litigation.^[22]

However, Cohen has refused to back down, and filed a staggering $18 billion lawsuit against Spain in September 2024, arguing that the annulment of Stampa’s appointment constituted a “denial of justice.”^[23] Legal analysts and press commentators widely rejected the basis of the suit, with El Progreso stating, “the real concern lies with Spanish taxpayers, who could end up shouldering a burden worth billions as a result of the unregulated landscape of international arbitration".^[24] Periodista Digital described the ICSID filing as “an erratic and increasingly incoherent strategy,” driven by the Sulus’ third-party funders trying to recover millions in losses.^[25] “Their hope is that Spain will panic and accept a deal to recoup losses,” it added.^[26]

The scale of the demand —surpassing ten times the largest award ever granted by ICSID— has drawn intense scrutiny. IB Times called it a “desperate financial maneuver than a legal strategy.”^[27]

Despite repeated defeats, Cohen has continued advancing the Sulus’ legal offensive. His team has even gone as far as suggesting that Sabah —an integral part of Malaysia— could be leased to foreign powers, a move widely seen as legally baseless and diplomatically inflammatory.^[28] An analysis by Modern Diplomacy noted, “The threat, however speculative, of Filipino nationals purporting to grant rights over sovereign Malaysian territory to Beijing is a clear incendiary flashpoint in a region which is already on the brink.”^[29]

With major court decisions against him and growing backlash from policymakers, Cohen’s strategy has become emblematic of the risks posed by unchecked third-party litigation funding. Mary Honeyball, former MEP and former member of the European Parliament's Legal Affairs Committee, said no case "highlights the need for stronger EU regulation of litigation funding than the US$15 billion arbitration award against the Government of Malaysia in the Sulu case". Keith Ellison, former vice chairman of the Democratic National Committee and Minnesota attorney general, has also pointed out that "the case highlights the considerable scope for bribery, irresponsible profiteering, and foreign influence operations to subvert arbitration proceedings".^[30]

Controversy

Tommy Thomas, the former Attorney General of Malaysia, has described Cohen as "enemies of Malaysia" in 2022.^[31] Cohen has also been criticized for his counselling services to claimants in the dispute between the Malaysian government and alleged heirs of the Sulu Sultanate. One of the eight Sulu claimants,^[32] Muhammad Fuad Abdullah Kiram, has been classified as a terrorist^[33] by the Malaysian government under section 66B of the Anti-Money Laundering, Anti-Terrorist Financing and Proceeds of Unlawful Activities Act 2001, effective 6 April 2023.^[34] Upon learning Kiram's classification as a terrorist, Therium and Cohen did not discontinue their funding or representation for the claimants, but instead strongly criticized and dismissed the action of the Malaysian government.^[35]

He is said to have links to global legal financing firms like Therium and Silicon Valley tech companies that have interests in the oil-rich Sabah region. Reuters confirmed that Therium provided $20 million litigation funding to the claimants.^[36] The same Reuters report noted that Cohen “first heard of their claims from an oil and gas expert he cross examined in 2014 in an unrelated case. Knowing they did not have the financial means, Cohen in 2016 brought on board Therium, a British firm that has bankrolled legal actions by raising money from institutional investors, including a sovereign wealth fund”.^[36]

Cohen admitted to New Straits Times that "it was a matter of public record that they were being funded by litigation financiers out of London".^[37]

A EuroNews article also accused Cohen of “backing organizations involved in climate denial and making millions from ads for ExxonMobil, BP, Chevron and Shell or entities like The American Petroleum Institute”.^[38] It said Cohen had talked of confiscating “specific Malaysian assets” and “has regularly represented oil and gas clients in international arbitrations”.

A Eurasia Review report called the case the "most elaborate international legal scam ever perpetrated" and called Cohen a "contemporary of Stampa".^[39]

An April 2023 article by Maurizio Geri in Real Clear Defense said Cohen “serves as President of the Silicon Valley Arbitration and Mediation Center based in Palo Alto, California. He is also head of SVAMC’s Task Force on Tech Disputes, Tech Companies & International Arbitration which works in 'dialogue' with major US tech giants to explore how they can benefit from arbitration”.^[40] It claimed that Cohen had close proximity with “US tech giants” and questioned “whether the lawsuit representing the Sulu heirs is linked to interests with a much larger stake in the geopolitical rivalry unfolding in the Asia-Pacific over control of the region’s data networks”.^[40]

In June 2023, a police report was filed against Cohen in Malaysia for "making false claims against the Malaysian government and the Attorney General".^[41]

Publications

Cohen is one of the authors of International Corruption,^[42] a book that discusses bribery and antibribery compliance. He is also the co-author of Corporate Internal Investigations - An International Guide,^[43] published by Oxford University Press, and also authored International Energy Arbitration,^[44] a book about international energy arbitrations. He is also a contributing author at Transnational Dispute Management^[3] and editor-in-chief of The Journal of Technology in International Arbitration. He is the president of the Silicon Valley Arbitration & Mediation Center (SVAMC) as of August 2023.^[45][40]