Mr. Chanaka De Silva was admitted to the Bar in Sri Lanka in 1985, having completed his professional education at Sri Lanka Law College. Following admission to the Bar, Mr. De Silva joined the Attorney General’s Department of Sri Lanka in 1987 as a State Counsel and functioned in that capacity until his resignation from the Attorney General’s Department at the end of 1996 to join NITHYA PARTNERS as a founding partner.

During Mr. De Silva’s tenure as a State Counsel he specialized in commercial and banking law and project financing. Following specialized training in the latter area, Mr. De Silva was specifically assigned by the Attorney General as the Senior Legal Consultant to the Secretariat for Infrastructure Development and Investment and its successor, the Bureau of Infrastructure Investment. During this period Mr. De Silva was also a Legal Advisor to the Public Enterprises Reform Commission of Sri Lanka. Consequently, Mr. De Silva was involved in advising the Government on several large scale infrastructure projects in diverse areas such as electricity, petroleum, ports and mining.

Mr. De Silva presently deals with the litigation aspects of the Firm’s practice. He has consequently been involved in several high profile cases and arbitrations within and outside Sri Lanka. In addition to litigation, Mr. De Silva handles project finance aspects of Firm’s practice, which has included several projects relating to the power, public utilities, transport and port infrastructure projects, within and outside Sri Lanka.

Mr. De Silva advises on matters relating to the Customs Ordinance and has represented clients such as John Keells Holdings, Shell Gas Lanka, Eagle Insurance, MAS Holdings, DHL Keells, Asian Paints and Citibank N.A. at customs inquiries. He also advises on matters relating to Consumer Protection Laws and the Consumer Affairs Authority Act and represents the firm’s clients, more notably, Ceylon Cold Stores, JK Marketing Services (Keells Supermarkets) and Shell Gas Lanka at inquiries before the Consumer Affairs Authority and the Magistrate’s Courts.

Mr. De Silva is also actively involved in the work of several committees including membership of the Advisory Commission on Intellectual Property through which has represented the Government of Sri Lanka at several sessions of WIPO in Geneva.