Constantinos Messios
Advocate
Managing Director
messios@messios.com
Constantinos is the founder and Managing Director of C.D. Messios LLC.
He oversees the Firm’s three main departments: Corporate & Commercial, Financial Services, and Dispute Resolution.
Areas of Expertise
Complex cross-border disputes
High-value construction claims acting mainly for contractors
International and local commercial institutional and ad hoc arbitrations
Representing regulated investment firms and individuals before the Cyprus Securities and Exchange Commission, as well as in their dealings with regulators around the world
Recent Workload Successes
Recent as well as current workload includes:
Judgement reserved in an arbitration in which our firm acts for the contractor on claims made in relation to a high-end beachfront development. Claims are for payment reduction, cancellation of interim certificates, extension of time, delay and disruption. Variation of price and payment for additional works.
Registration of a Swiss Arbitration Award in Cyprus contested on public policy grounds. The decision was successfully upheld by us on appeal. The decision raised important issues in relation to when public policy grounds especially in relation to bribery can lead to the unenforceability of an award.
Acting for Arbitrators on an application to set aside of their award on grounds of misconduct. The decision was successfully overthrown on appeal.
Acting for the contractor in a claim for delays and payment for additional works in relation to a major public building in which we also successfully objected to an application to the courts to set aside an interim award on the admissibility of evidence of an admission made on behalf of the respondent during the arbitral proceedings.
Successfully opposed an attempt to remove an arbitrator on the grounds of bias after allegations were made against him that procedure favoured the claimant.
Negotiating settlement on various large-scale construction claims for major public buildings, which included successfully contesting before the courts applications to stay the arbitration proceedings on the grounds of illegality and uncertainty in the subject matter of the arbitration.
Representing construction professionals in negligence claims against them before the Cypriot Courts where substantive duty of care issues are being raised.
Acting for owners in an arrest of a vessel in Cypriot Water whose ownership is disputed where novel points of all on parallel proceedings in aid of other EU proceedings were decided. The case was heard in the Cypriot Supreme Court.
Experience & Education
Constantinos graduated in Law from Queen Mary College, University of London and is qualified to practise as a Solicitor in England and as an Advocate in Cyprus.
A Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators, he is a member of both the International Bar Association and the International Section of the American Bar Association. Constantinos also serves on the Cyprus Bar Association’s ‘Company, Tax Planning and Stock Exchange Committee’, and is a member of the Board of the Regulatory Body of the Accounting Profession in Cyprus.
Fluent in English and Greek, Constantinos is a skilled communicator who writes and lectures extensively on dispute resolution, corporate and financial matters, and on social and political issues.
EXPERTISE
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