What kinds of litigation support instructions do you accept?

Research notes and opinions on Sri Lankan law; enforcement of foreign judgments and arbitral awards; ship arrest; interim relief in the Commercial High Court; drafting of pleadings, affidavits and submissions in the form the Sri Lankan court requires; and appearance as local counsel. The articles under Read before instructing describe each in detail.

Do you work directly with end clients or only with law firms?

We primarily assist instructing solicitors, barristers, and legal teams. Where appropriate, enquiries may also be made through the Chambers for review.

How do you handle confidentiality?

Scope and conflicts are confirmed in writing before any document is read. The matter is held by the counsel named on this page. Privilege is a matter of Sri Lankan law as well as yours, and we say at the outset where the two differ.

Can you assist on urgent timelines?

Where timing permits and the brief is properly scoped, we can support urgent research and drafting requirements, particularly where the key issue is clearly defined at the outset.

What should an enquiry include?

The most useful first enquiry includes the jurisdiction, core issue, relevant timeline, desired format, deadline, and any key documents needed to understand the instruction quickly.

Can a UK or Australian judgment be enforced in Sri Lanka?

Often, yes, and the route changed in 2024. The Reciprocal Recognition, Registration and Enforcement of Foreign Judgments Act No. 49 of 2024, certified on 13 September 2024, repealed both the Enforcement of Foreign Judgments Ordinance and the Reciprocal Enforcement of Judgments Ordinance (section 21) and replaced them with a single registration procedure. A judgment is registrable only where the country whose court gave it has been named in an Order made by the Minister under section 2, so the first question on any UK, Australian or Singaporean judgment is whether that Order covers it. Arbitral awards are separate: they are enforced under the Arbitration Act No. 11 of 1995. We advise on both, and the two articles below set out the procedure.

How do overseas solicitors instruct AW Chambers as local counsel?

An instructing firm sends a short brief setting out the jurisdiction, the core issue, the timeline, and the documents needed to understand the matter. We confirm scope and conflicts, then act as Sri Lankan local counsel for research, drafting, procedural steps, or in-country representation as required.

Why instruct Sri Lankan counsel for litigation support?

Sri Lanka is a common-law jurisdiction whose procedure and precedent are readily recognisable to UK and Australian teams, so instructions translate cleanly. Local counsel provides the in-country standing, court access, and cost efficiency that an overseas firm cannot replicate remotely.

Colombo

6.9271° N · 79.8612° E

I · INTERNATIONAL

Sri Lankan counsel, instructed from abroad.

Attorney-led research, drafting and local representation for firms in London, Singapore and Australia with a matter governed by Sri Lankan law. Prepared in a form a partner can put in front of a client without rework.

Discuss an instruction +94 77 771 3350 WhatsApp

Mandate profile

Typical instruction: Research, drafting, strategy
Instruction style: Partner-led and discreet
Instructed from: London · Singapore · Australia

Every proposition cited to the statute or the report; nothing stated from memory
Sri Lanka is a common-law jurisdiction: a UK or Australian team reads our work without a glossary
Instructed from London, Singapore and Australia; Colombo time is stated on every deadline

II · WHERE INSTRUCTIONS COME FROM

Instructed from four jurisdictions.

A live view of the working day in the jurisdictions we are most often instructed from, set against Colombo time.

Instructing hours

Five cities, one continuous working day.

UTC reference · updated every second

CMB
Colombo
Sri Lanka
Open
14:07:44
Tue 06 Oct
±0h CMB
SIN
Singapore
Singapore
Open
16:37:44
Tue 06 Oct
+2h30m CMB
LON
London
United Kingdom
Open
09:37:44
Tue 06 Oct
−4h30m CMB
SYD
Sydney
Australia
Closed
19:37:44
Tue 06 Oct
+5h30m CMB
MEL
Melbourne
Australia
Closed
19:37:44
Tue 06 Oct
+5h30m CMB

Within local business hours · Outside business hours

Chambers · 09:00–18:00 Colombo

III · THE STANDARD

What an instructing firm actually gets.

Four things that separate counsel on the ground from research bought at a distance.

Written by counsel who appear

The lawyers named below appear in the Supreme Court, the Court of Appeal, the High Courts and the trial courts. A memorandum is written by someone who will have to argue it.

Conflicts first, then the documents

Scope and conflicts are confirmed in writing before any document is read. Instructions are held by the counsel named on this page, not passed to a pool.

Standing in the local courts

A firm abroad cannot file, appear or inspect a court record in Sri Lanka. Sri Lankan attorneys-at-law can, and the Chambers is at Hulftsdorp as a matter of routine.

Paced to the Sri Lankan calendar

Court vacations, the order of the roll and the time limits in the Civil Procedure Code and the Prescription Ordinance are stated in the first note, so that a deadline set abroad is not set against a court that is not sitting.

IV · THE WORK

Work a partner can review, not rebuild.

Without disclosing confidential instructions, the Chambers supports research-heavy, time-sensitive, and technically demanding disputes, with usable structure, clear issue framing, authorities that matter, and drafting support senior lawyers can review efficiently.

Instructions we take

Registration of a foreign money judgment under Act No. 49 of 2024, and resisting one

Enforcement of a SIAC or ICC award under the Arbitration Act No. 11 of 1995, including security applications

Arrest of a vessel in Colombo under the Admiralty Jurisdiction Act No. 40 of 1983

Interim relief in the Commercial High Court: injunctions, enjoining orders and their discharge

Powers of attorney and proxies for a client abroad, and the registration steps that make them usable

Opinions on Sri Lankan law for use in foreign proceedings, in a form a foreign court will accept

Sample Work Product

Research note on a point of Sri Lankan law

The question, the answer, the authorities cited to the Sri Lanka Law Reports or the New Law Reports, and the procedural route in the Civil Procedure Code — four pages, not forty, written to be read before a hearing.

Enforcement memorandum

Whether a UK, Singaporean or Australian judgment can be registered under Act No. 49 of 2024, or an award enforced under the Arbitration Act No. 11 of 1995; what has to be filed in the District Court of Colombo; what the debtor can raise against it.

Drafts for the Sri Lankan court

Plaints, answers, affidavits, written submissions and powers of attorney in the form the court here requires, so that a document prepared abroad is not rejected at the registry for a defect of form.

V · HOW AN INSTRUCTION RUNS

Scope agreed before the work starts.

The enquiry process is designed to feel direct, senior, and commercially aware: quick to start, careful in scope, and professional in delivery.

Case Flow

Hover the milestones · Enquiry → Delivery

Hover or focus a milestone to read its detail.

What a first enquiry should carry

01Jurisdiction and court context
02Core issue or question to be answered
03Delivery format required
04Relevant timing or hearing date
05Key authorities or documents already available
06Preferred level of depth or urgency

VI · READ BEFORE INSTRUCTING

The questions a brief usually turns on.

Whether a judgment can be registered here, what an award needs before a Sri Lankan court will enforce it, how a firm abroad instructs, and what it costs to be on the receiving end. Each is written to the statute and reviewed against it.

VII · QUESTIONS

Before you instruct.

Clear answers on scope, confidentiality, urgency, and the kinds of instructions that fit this service best.

VIII · COUNSEL

The names on the file.

Instructions are led from Colombo by the counsel below, the latest of a family recorded at the Galle Bar since 1826. The wider bench is set out under the team.