Associate

Akarsha Weerasooriya

Admitted December 2023

Junior Counsel at AW Chambers, Akarsha Weerasooriya appears across the trial and appellate courts in civil, criminal, and advisory matters, pairing courtroom work with disciplined research and drafting.

LinkedIn Profile

II · Biography

In their own register.

Akarsha Weerasooriya practises as Junior Counsel at AW Chambers, which he joined in March 2023. Courtroom appearances sit alongside the research and drafting that prepare them.

He has appeared as Junior Counsel before the Supreme Court, the Court of Appeal, the High Court, the District Court and the Magistrate's Court, as well as outstation courts, in corporate, civil and criminal matters including trials.

His drafting covers bail applications, fundamental rights petitions, written submissions and affidavits, together with the research that supports them. He read for an LL.B (Hons) at the University of London and sat the Attorney-at-Law examinations at Sri Lanka Law College.

His apprenticeship took in arbitration, mediation and negotiation work, researching and preparing documents for matters resolved outside the courtroom as well as in it.

He also writes. A background in content strategy and corporate communications, built over several years alongside his legal training, informs the Chambers' published commentary, much of which he authors.

He played rugby for S. Thomas' College, Mount Lavinia and for Sri Lanka Law College, and rowed for his school and the Colombo Rowing Club.

III · Expertise

Disciplines held.

Trial and Appellate Appearances

Civil and Criminal Litigation

Fundamental Rights Applications

Legal Research and Drafting

Corporate and Advisory Support

IV · Qualifications

Education & standing.

LL.B (Hons) (London)

Attorney-at-Law

Sri Lanka Law College

V · Practice

Where they appear.

Supreme Court

Court of Appeal

High Courts

Magistrate's Courts

Labour Tribunals

Occasionally

Commercial High Court · District Courts

Working languages

English · Sinhala

VI · Instruction

Instruct directly.

Akarsha takes instructions directly. Conversations with the chambers are confidential, and an enquiry is normally answered within one working day.

akarsha@awchambers.com

Call the chambers All contact details

V · Connected Practice

Where they appear.

Criminal Defence & Human Rights

Criminal defence, appellate advocacy, financial crime work, extradition issues, and constitutional or human-rights challenges.

Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR)

Arbitration, mediation, negotiation, and settlement strategy for parties seeking structured outcomes outside conventional court process.

Regulatory Investigations & Compliance

Administrative appeals, investigations, enforcement exposure, and compliance-sensitive advisory work across regulated sectors.

Civil Law

Civil disputes spanning contracts, tort, property, family, probate, and related private-law issues.

VI · Further Reading

Selected insights.

Legal Heritage

The Supreme Court of Sri Lanka and the Office of Chief Justice

The court and the office were made in the same instrument, by royal charter, in 1801. What followed was thirty years of patching, a Benthamite reformer who wanted one system of courts for the whole island, and a charter in 1833 that largely got it. The structure a Sri Lankan lawyer works in today is recognisably the one that charter built.

Legal System

The Attorney-General of Sri Lanka: Adviser and Prosecutor in One Office

Sri Lanka gives one office two jobs that most common-law countries keep apart: advising the State on the law, and deciding who is put on trial. England splits them, India never joined them, the United States fused them politically, and Singapore did what Sri Lanka did. The choice shapes how a case against the State is run.

VII · The Chambers