Wesley PYDIAMAH
Wesley heads the International Arbitration team in Paris and co-leads the Africa group at Eversheds Sutherland. In 2025, he was appointed to the senior leadership of Eversheds Sutherland’s TMT sector. Wesley’s experience includes dozens of cases in which he has represented Governments, State-entities and private multinational companies in proceedings before numerous institutional and ad hoc arbitral tribunals (ICSID, ICC, SIAC, PCA, LCIA, DIFC and UNCITRAL Rules). He also has significant experience in proceedings before the Iran-US Claims Tribunal.
Wesley's regional focus is on Africa. As the Deputy Head of Eversheds Sutherland's Africa Group since October 2019, Wesley is responsible for developing the firm’s practice across francophone Africa, and works closely with all local law firms forming part of the Eversheds Sutherland Africa Alliance.
Wesley has 15+ years of specialised experience in the energy and TMT sectors across Africa and the Middle East. He is regularly chosen by European oil majors and NOCs to handle their upstream and energy-related disputes across Africa. As for the TMT sector, Wesley represents States and telecoms network operators in commercial arbitrations, investor-state disputes and contentious regulatory matters. His specialist knowledge includes emerging technologies and digital infrastructure such as subsea cables.
Wesley features in all leading directories. Since 2020, he has been consistently described by Global/Arbitration Review/Who's Who Legal as a Future Leader in International Arbitration. In 2024, for the second year in a row, Jeune Afrique and Africa Business ranked Wesley among the 100 most influential lawyers in Africa, and, in 2020 and 2021, Euromoney listed him as one of the 10 rising stars in international arbitration in France. In 2022, Who’s Who Legal Future Leaders: Arbitration noted: “Wesley Pydiamah is a responsible, fast, accurate and responsive lawyer, singled out for his ability to develop a clear strategy in disputes”. The Legal 500 also singled him out in 2022: “Wesley Pydiamah is a great professional to work with and clients are very satisfied with the work he is performing. He is always available with his unique and practical solutions to projects”.
Since July 2022, Wesley has served as Editor of the first ever international publication on Telecoms Arbitrations, published annually by Global Arbitration Review (The Guide to Telecoms Arbitrations - Global Arbitration Review). He also lectures on arbitration and disputes in Africa at the University of Paris 2 Panthéon Assas and the London School of Economics. He is a member of several arbitral organisations, is a founding member of AfricArb and serves on the advisory board of the MARC Court, the leading arbitral institution in Mauritius dedicated to resolving Africa-related disputes. He regularly publishes articles on arbitration in Africa and speaks at conferences aimed at doing business in francophone Africa.
