Partner and Head of the firm's Banking & Finance and Insurance Law Departments, Nicolas Kyriakides is one of Cyprus's most celebrated young commercial lawyers and academics. He is known as widely internationally as he is domestically: he is regularly involved in projects with the leading banking, finance and insurance brands in Cyprus, as well as foreign equivalents globally in relation to their Cypriot operations; and in addition to a doctorate from the University of Oxford with Professor Adrian Zuckerman, he is a two-time Master of Laws with qualifications from UCL and New York University. Nicolas has also been a Visiting Researcher at Harvard Law School (Spring 2020) with Professor David Rosenberg. He is a member of the firm's Board of Directors. He also lectures regularly at the University of Nicosia.
Nicolas's work encompasses the full range of insurance issues - clinical and professional negligence, motor accidents and employers' and public liability. He advises both claimants and defendants (more common in Cyprus) so has a 360-degree view of the issues that arise on both sides of the equation, from which all his clients benefit. He also supervises teams advising insurance companies and banks on regulatory and compliance issues.
He is particularly known for his out-of-the-box legal thinking and his track record of establishing new legal concepts and ideas. He has contributed to a number of high-level innovative legal research initiatives and papers, particularly in the area of Civil Procedure, in the course of both his commercial practice and his academic life. As a result he is regularly consulted to advise on changing legislation and regulation.
Indeed over the last 18 months Nicolas has played a key role a number of landmark law reform initiatives aimed at improving the quality and consistency of Cyprus’s Civil Procedure regime, recognised as key to attracting foreign investment into the region:
- As Founder and Director of the Procedural Law Unit at the University of Nicosia, he has been spearheading research into reform of Cyprus’s civil legal system and culture, and best approaches to reform. He also developed a paper on the role (and limitations) of AI in improving the legal system and a paper on the potential introduction of an EU-wide civil search order;
- Always an ardent advocate for cross-country collaboration in law reform, his work at Harvard has been looking outwards at comparative law reform experiences in other jurisdictions, to better understand the changes needed in the Cyprus legal system and what the key challenges will be;
- He has led a high-level campaign for better consistency, predictability and transparency of judicial outcomes in the Cyprus commercial courts, key to promoting better certainty for businesses going through the civil justice system – the Supreme Court Case Law Translation Project;
- He is a co-founder of the Cyprus Forum of Insurance Lawyers to promote consistency, predictability and fairness in insurance disputes;
- He has been closely involved with the launch of the new Cyprus Forum, in association with the Delphi Economic Forum. This is a high-level conference for members of government, for private and public sector leaders, senior academics and media, and is designed to be a lever and catalyst for change.
- He has established Cyprus’s first company involved in pure political lobbying, Zenox Public Affairs.
- He was elected in the committee of the Larnaca Bar Association, and was invited to help Cyprus Bar Association’s work on reform of Civil Procedure Rules and other law reforms;
- He was also elected on the board of the Larnaca Chamber of Commerce & Industry to assist their work helping companies adapt to a very fast-changing business environment;
During this period he was also the editor of a new leading textbook on Cyprus Banking Law published in March 2021.
Languages Spoken:
English, Greek, French
Professional Memberships
Member of the Cyprus Bar Association and committee member of the Larnaca Bar Association
Board member of the Larnaca Chamber of Commerce & Industry
Member of the Insurance Institute of Cyprus
Founding member of the Cyprus Forum of Insurance Lawyers
Founding member of the Cyprus Forum
Member of the Board of Directors of the Cyprus Arbitration Forum
Founder and co-director of the Procedural Law Unit at the University of Nicosia
Fellow of the European Law Institute (ELI) and member of its Insurance Law SIG
Authorships
Editor of Cyprus Banking Law (Nomiki Vivliothiki, 2021)
Career Timeline
2006 - 2010: University of Athens - Bachelor of Laws (LL.B.)
2010 - 2011: University College London, U. of London - Master of Laws (LL.M.)
2011 - 2012: University of Oxford - Master of Studies in Legal Research (MSt)
2012 - 2013: New York University - Master of Laws (LL.M.)
2012: Mayer Brown - Internship
2013 – 2016: University of Oxford - Doctor of Philosophy (DPhil)
2013 - Present: Harris Kyriakides LLC - Partner and member of Board of Directors
2016 - Present: Harris Kyriakides LLC - Head of Insurance & Personal Injury
2018 - Present: University of Nicosia - Adjunct Faculty
2019 - Present: Harris Kyriakides LLC - Head of Banking and Finance
