Sunil D.B. Abeyaratne

Sunil D.B. Abeyaratne (Justice of Peace and Unofficial Magistrate) enrolled as an Attorney-at-law of the Supreme Court of Sri Lanka in 1986. He holds LL.M (Queen Mary College of University of London), MBA (Indira Gandhi National Open University) and Diploma in Forensic Medicine, Science and Toxicology (Faculty of Medicine, University of Colombo). He is a PRIME graduate (International trainer) of Junior Chamber International.

He is a practicing Attorney-at-Law in the fields of civil, commercial and criminal law and a Commercial Arbitrator. He is a visiting lecturer and examiner of Sri Lanka Law College, Faculty of Law and Faculty of Medicine of University of Colombo, Department of Law of University of Peradeniya and Bar Association of Sri Lanka (BASL), APIIT Law School, ICBT campus, National Police Training School of Sri Lanka and NIBM on ICT Law and related subjects. He is also a lecturer and examiner of the Institute for development of Commercial Laws & Practices (ICLP) and the Arbitration Centre of Kandy (TACK) on Commercial and Construction Arbitration Law.

He has been appointed as a researcher of China-South Asia Law Research Centre, Yunnan University, Kunming. He addressed on law relating to Electronic funds Transferring in China and other countries at the Conference organised by All China Law Society and addressed at the training program of regional lawyers held in Kunming in 2017. He was a speaker of the Belt and Road session at the LAWASIA Business Law Conference in Manila, March 2019.

He was instrumental to strengthen relationship between LAWASIA and BASL organising LAWASIA ICT Law Conference 2008 and LAWASIA Business Law Conference 2010 in Colombo heading the organising committees of the BASL. He served as LAWASIA Vice President (2015-2016), Exco member (2010 – 2015), Country Councillor / Alternate Councillor (2006-2010) and Acting Country Councillor (2017). Mr.Abeyaratne headed the sessions committee of the POLA Summit held in Colombo, 2017 and represented the President, BASL at the POLA Conference held in August 2018, Canberra.

He has presented over 100 conference & seminar papers at National and International Conferences including LAWASIA annual, IT Law and Employment Law Conferences, 800th Anniversary celebration of Magna Carta (representing LAWASIA), IBA Conferences and contributed many articles to leading local and international law journals and to the Sri Lankan press on ICT law, Intellectual Property Rights and employment law. He authored the book titled “Introduction to ICT Law”. He is the Chief Editor of “the Business Lawyer” and the Law and Management annual journal.

Currently, he holds the positions of Co-Chair of Data Protection, Communication and Technology Committee and Secretary of the Employment Law Committee of LAWASIA, Chairman of the IT Committee of the Bar Association of Sri Lanka, Bar Council member of BASL, and Exco member of Organisation of Professional Associations of Sri Lanka as the Representative of law.

He is also the chairman of the Arbitration Centre of Kandy, the Institute of Legal and Management Studies in Sri Lanka and ICT Lawyers’ Guild of Sri Lanka. He was the Secretary of the BASL (2006-2008) and member of the Incorporated Council of Legal Education in Sri Lanka.