Chanaka is recognised in the Legal 500 for his work in the energy, offshore oil and gas sector. He has over twenty years' experience working for various upstream contractors, both in the negotiation of all project contracts and full service dispute management. Chanaka is also a senior arbitration partner, a qualified lawyer both in England and Wales and Singapore. He joined HFW (London) in 2002 and has been permanently based in HFW (Singapore) since 2005.

He regularly leads on the drafting and negotiation of a broad range of contracts for both the construction and charter of FPSOs, FSOs, MODUs and PSVs. He has extensive experience with a range of contracting arrangements to include PRE-FEED, FEED, EPC, and EPCIC contracts. Chanaka also advises on various offshore services agreements relating to installation, supply, logistics, maintenance and operator services.

He handles large, complex multi-jurisdictional international arbitrations. Over the last twenty years from Singapore he has managed disputes in Brazil, Nigeria, Ivory Coast, UAE, Iraq, India, Thailand, Singapore, Indonesia, Korea and China. He has successfully applied on numerous for appointment of Emergency Arbitrators for urgent interim relief and has secured various injunctions from arbitration tribunals, including injunctions under the rarely used Security for Claim jurisdiction.

Chanaka has also been appointed both as an arbitrator and a mediator. He is a Fellow (FCIArb) of the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators and listed as an arbitrator on the SIAC reserve panel. Chanaka has also been appointed to the Asian International Arbitration Centre panel both as an arbitrator and a mediator. He has sat on the SIAC Users Council National Committee for Singapore, and continues to sit on the SCMA Procedure Committee.