Nineteenth Annual Leading Arbitrators’ Symposium on the Conduct of International Arbitration

REGISTRATION IS OPEN!

Monday 25 March 2024
Hosted at

Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer Rechtsanwälte
Peregringasse 4, 1090 Wien, Austria

JURIS is pleased to invite you to register for our Leading Arbitrator’s Symposium, held annually during the Vis Moot competition in Vienna. This four-panel program will feature leading arbitration practitioners and scholars who will tackle important questions about the changing dynamics of international arbitration. This includes post-pandemic considerations, security, sustainability, the next generation of arbitrators, changes to arbitral rules, and more.


Registration

Registration Fee Includes:
A digital copy of the new Leading Arbitrators Guide to International Arbitration – Fourth Edition and special discounts on the hardcover book. Access to conference recording, refreshments at breaks, luncheon, and a drinks reception following the program. The fee does not include accommodations.

Continuing Legal Education: 7 hours of NY CLE credit (transitional and non-transitional) in the Areas of Professional Practice and a general certificate of attendance will be provided upon request.

Pricing is available for individual sessions. Please contact us at
events@jurispub.com for details.

Register Online here:

Nineteenth Annual Leading Arbitrators' Symposium
$499.00

Nineteenth Annual Leading Arbitrators' Symposium *Academic/Govt/Corporate Rate
$299.00

* ONLY available to full-time academics [with no law firm affiliation], government employees, and full-time in-house corporate counsel.
** Wire transfer information and student rate contact:
events@jurispub.com
*** Discount code must be entered at the time of registration in the “Special Requests/Comments/Discount Code” field. Note that due to system glitch price will not recalculate but rest assured by entering code correct amount will be charged. Codes may not be used retroactively.

Cancellations: 50% of the Symposium fee will be refunded for any cancellation received in writing by JURIS Conferences LLC prior to the Monday 11 March 2024. No refund can be made for cancellations received after this date. You are welcome to send a substitute at any time. Please notify us if you plan to send a substitute since updated registration materials will be required.

Student Rate:
For “traditional” full-time students with current student ID and no monetary affiliation to any law firms, companies, or government organizations. Contact JURIS Conferences at: events@jurispub.com for current rate.

Financial Aid:
Our Financial Aid policy is available here


Program

8:00 – 9:00 Registration Check-In – Coffee and Tea upon arrival

9:00 – 10:30 Working Session 1Initial Organization of the Arbitral Proceeding and Pre-Hearing Activities

Leader: Grant Hanessian – Hanessian ADR (New York)

Panelists:
Ziya Akinci – Akinci Law Office (Istanbul)
Hilary Heilbron – Brick Court Chambers (London)
Bridget M. McCormack – President CEO, AAA-ICDR (New York)
Patricia Peterson – Peterson ADR (Paris)
Lawrence Schaner – Schaner Dispute Resolution (Chicago)

Discussion Topics:

  • Do parties take sufficient advantage of opportunities for early determinations?
  • Is it advisable to schedule, at the first meeting, mid-stream procedures such as “check-ins” by the Tribunal or Kaplan Openings.
  • What is the tribunal’s obligation regarding settlement? Are there different regional perspectives re this?
  • Procedures for best presenting complex damages evidence – avoiding ships passing in the night.
  • Practicalities of submissions: is sufficient thought given to optimizing the shape and form of submissions including numbering, hyperlinking, etc? What works best for one party or even both, may not be optimal for the arbitrators. How should their interests be balanced and is this adequately and transparently addressed for instance in the CMC?
  • Third-party funding: at what stage should funding be disclosed and have standards developed sufficiently to allow sensible disclosure?
  • There is increasing guidance on the use of tribunal secretaries, both in institutional rules and guidelines and in case law. Is practice changing and how can practice be improved further?
  • Is sustainability the new diversity? Should we aim for comprehensive, industry wide standards based on more research and clear guidelines on the carbon footprint of arbitration or start with small steps regardless?

10:30 – 11:00 Networking Coffee/Tea Break

11:00 – 12:30 Working Session 2Effective Presentation of Evidence – Focus on Technology

Leader: Stephanie Cohen – Independent Arbitrator (New York)

Panelists:
Adriana Braghetta – Independent Arbitrator (Sao Paolo)
Nikolaus Pitkowitz – Pitkowitz & Partners (Vienna)
Catherine Rodgers – Bocconi University (Milan)
Galina Zukova – Zukova Legal (Paris)

Discussion Topics:

  • Challenges posed by the rapid expansion of AI technology.
  • Are parties and arbitrators genuinely engaging in appropriate data protections processes? What are best practices in relation to cyber security, and how can we balance security demands and practical considerations, recognizing the wildly differing expectations and preferences of all participants in an arbitration.
  • What are best practices in relation to virtual hearings; are these now the default for case management conferences? When is it appropriate for the arbitrators to require these over objection of a party?
  • When are tribunal-appointed experts useful; should they always appear at a hearing and be subjected to questions about his or her conclusions?
  • Do the Prague Rules add anything, or is there a predominating style of taking evidence in international arbitration, i.e., have we arrived at a Lex naturalis arbitri void of cultural differences?
  • Is it always necessary to have an oral hearing? When is summary disposition permissible (or necessary)?
  • Who controls the length of a hearing? Should arbitrators impose their views or defer to the parties?
  • Are there too many witnesses, too many documents – is advocacy lost among the detail?
  • How can the tribunal or parties control tactical decisions by parties not to cross-examine key witnesses?
  • Is witness conferencing effective? Is this only for experts? Are there particular circumstances when it is most appropriate? Inappropriate?

12:30 – 14:00 Networking Luncheon compliments of Skadden

14:00 15:30 Working Session 3Next Generation Leading Arbitrators

Leader: Filip Boras – Partner, Baker McKenzie (Vienna)

Panelists:
Anna Kozmenko – Partner, Curtis, Mallet-Prevost, Colt & Mosle (Geneva)
Marleen Krueger – Partner, Wilmer Hale (London)
Alexander G. Leventhal – Partner, Quinn Emanuel (Paris)
Derek Soller – Partner, Pillsbury (New York)
Anna-Maria Tamminen – Partner, Hannes Snellman (Helsinki)

Discussion Topics:

  • How to get first appointments in high-profile cases?
  • What should the new generation of leading arbitrators do differently than previous generations to succeed?
  • How important is the predictability of decision making in the selection of an arbitrator? How to overcome this if a young arbitrator has no sufficient track record of existing awards?
  • How to give clients the comfort of appointing a young arbitrator?
  • Is service as a Tribunal secretary useful? Necessary?
  • What was the most useful advice panelists have received about how to preside as chair?

15:30 – 16:00 Networking Coffee/Tea Break

16:00 – 17:30 Working Session 4Tribunal Deliberations and Dynamics

Leader: Michael W. Bühler – Bühler Arbitration (Paris)

Panelists:
J. Brian Casey – Bay Street Chambers (Canada)
Wulf Gordian Hauser – Hauser Rechtsanwälte GmbH & Co KG (Vienna)
Lawrence W. Newman – Of Counsel, Baker McKenzie (New York)
Malgorzata Surdek-Janicka – SURDEK ARBITRATION (Paris and Warsaw)

Discussion Topics:

  • Are there best practices as to how a Tribunal should organize its work? Should the chairman be delegated all procedural responsibilities? Or, if less, what should the chairman have delegated to him or her? Does the efficiency of the arbitration as to the delivery of the award depend entirely on the chairman? What can the wing arbitrators do to increase efficiency and assure quality?
  • To what extent should, or must, arbitrators disclose that they are using secretaries? If the arbitrators want to use secretaries and disclose their identity and involvement, how should they do it? Are arbitrators complying with the ICC’s note applicable to arbitrators and secretaries? What can parties and counsel do if they are not aware of certain arbitrators’ practices in this regard until after they appoint them? Or the chairman, whom they may not have appointed?
  • What can be done if an arbitrator is not doing his or her work as the case proceeds or is not paying attention in the course of the proceedings? What if this is the chairman?
  • Should the arbitrators deliberate on the award immediately after the final evidentiary hearing? After receiving the post-hearing briefs? After post-hearing oral argument? Should the arbitrators meet in person? Or by telecommunication? Should arbitrators discuss among themselves the merits of the cases as they proceed? Should such discussions be mandatory? Avoided? Casual or structured (for example, “What did we learn today?”).
  • What should the third arbitrator do if the other arbitrators discuss the case or meet without him or her?
  • Compromises – how imperfect is a unanimous award? Should the tribunal accommodate the potential dissenting arbitrator? If so, how? For example, with respect to the award of legal fees? What does a dissent accomplish?
  • When should, or may, the arbitrators rule on the basis of theories or arguments that the parties have not made? What if the arbitrators believe that parties have not understood the precedents they cite, or the facts they refer to, in the same way as the arbitrators do? When should the arbitrators go to the parties and ask for their comments? Should there be a difference between legal and factual issues?
  • What should the arbitrators do if they do not understand certain expert testimony? For example, damages evidence? Should they ask the parties for comments? What if they are working under a deadline to get the award out? Or they don’t want to confess their inability to understand the evidence?
  • To what extent may arbitrators do their own research on matters of general knowledge, such as how certain machines in the case actually work? Or how certain financial investments function?

17:30 – 19:00 Cocktail Reception compliments of Hauser Partners at Vienna Stock Exchange Building invitation only RSVP by 22 March.


Conference Chair

Grant Hanessian is an independent arbitrator in New York, specializing in international, investor-state and complex commercial disputes. Mr. Hanessian has acted as arbitrator and counsel in a wide range of commercial and treaty disputes arising under the laws of many common and civil law countries and public international law. Prior to July 2020, he was a partner at Baker McKenzie, where he practiced for 33 years, and served as global co-head of the firm’s International Arbitration Practice, head of its International Arbitration Practice in North America and head of its New York office Litigation Department.

Michael W. Bühler has extensive experience in commercial and corporate disputes, mainly in the areas of oil & gas and energy, construction, and engineering industries. He started his career in 1985 as counsel at the ICC Court of Arbitration in Paris. From October 1988 to December 2023, Michael worked in large Anglo-Saxon law firms, doing initially both corporate and arbitration work, to eventually focus his practice on international dispute resolution through negotiation, mediation and arbitration, as well as for the purpose of injunctive relief and/or enforcement, also state court litigation.


Faculty

Ziya Akıncı is the founding partner of Akıncı Law Office. He teaches international arbitration and private international law at Galatasaray University and acts as the president of the Istanbul Arbitration Centre (ISTAC). His expertise spans international arbitration and local litigation, as well as foreign investment law, energy, construction, and international business law. Dr Akıncı acts as counsel, arbitrator, and expert under the rules of ICSID, ICC, LCIA, DIAC, SIAC, SCC, VIAC, TRAC, and UNCITRAL.

Filip Boras heads the Dispute Resolution Practice Group in the Baker McKenzie Vienna office and is a member of the firm’s global International Arbitration Steering Committee. His experience covers a wide variety of disputes related to Central & Eastern Europe, including international commercial and investment arbitration before all major institutions and ad hoc tribunals. He is widely recognized as a leading lawyer for dispute resolution in Central & Eastern Europe.

Adriana Braghetta opened her own boutique in January 2020 to focus on the activity of sitting as arbitrator, after more than 25 years acting as counsel in international and national arbitration. She has worked in more than 200 arbitrations (either as counsel or as arbitrator) involving construction contracts (EPC, alliance, consortium etc.), joint-venture agreements, merger and acquisitions contracts (SPAs, QPAs), franchising contracts, oil and gas supply agreements (including several take-or-pay disputes), among others. Part of those cases refer to the following industries: civil construction, aerospace, education, insurance, mining, renewable energy, oil and gas, transportation, fashion, banking institutions, logistics, agribusiness, telecommunications, among others.

J. Brian Casey has over 40 years of experience in commercial dispute resolution. Former Principal of Baker & McKenzie International and a former Chair of the Firm’s North American Litigation Practice group. Mr. Casey received a Bachelor of Engineering degree from Carleton University and graduated magna cum laude with his LL.B. from the University of Ottawa. He has practiced at all levels of the courts in Canada, including the Supreme Court of Canada. He holds an LL.M. in international business law from York University, focus on international commercial arbitration. In 1995 he was designated a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators. In 2012 he formed Bay Street Chambers to continue his practice as an independent arbitrator.

Stephanie Cohen is an independent arbitrator of international and domestic disputes based in New York City.  Internationally recognized as a leading arbitrator by Chambers Guides and as a Who’s Who Thought Leader, Stephanie is also entrusted by major arbitral institutions to conduct new arbitrator training, including for the AAA since 2019 and for the ICC as Co-Chair of its Advanced Arbitration Academy for North America. She is especially well-known for her work on the impact of technology on arbitration practice and procedure, including as Chair of the Working Group that drafted the ICC Commission Report on Leveraging Technology for Fair, Effective, and Efficient International Arbitrations and as a member of the award-winning ICCA-NYC Bar-CPR Working Group on Cybersecurity.

Wulf Gordian Hauser Senior Partner of Hauser Partners Rechtsanwälte. His main areas of practice are international commercial arbitration, mergers and acquisitions and capital markets. He was Austrian member of the ICC court from 2012 – 2018 and has served in over 100 arbitrations. His arbitration activities focus on post M&A-disputes, construction, technology, corporate and private foundations.

Hilary Heilbron’s primary focus is now sitting as an international arbitrator in a variety of jurisdictions. She has accepted in excess of 125 appointments as party nominated arbitrator, institution appointed and sole arbitrator as well as an emergency arbitrator. Mrs. Heilbron has also chaired many tribunals of leading international arbitrators. Her appointments have been under ICC, LCIA, SCC, SIAC, HKIAC and ICDR as well as ad hoc appointments. Many of these relate to substantial claims including in excess of US$1 billion. She also has experience of arbitrations in many foreign laws: both civil and common law and many industrial sectors in a variety of types of claim including, but not limited to, energy, solar power, telecommunications and media, joint ventures and share sale agreements.

Anna Kozmenko is a Partner in the Geneva office of Curtis, Mallet-Prevost, Colt & Mosle LLP. Dr. Kozmenko is a highly experienced disputes lawyer recognized by leading directories as one of the top international lawyers of her generation. Having practiced in Russia, France, the US, and Switzerland, Dr. Kozmenko has extensive experience in both civil and common law jurisdictions. She represents sovereigns, state and private entities in high profile international disputes, including complex litigations, commercial, investment and sports arbitrations.

Marleen Krueger is a Partner in the London office of WilnerHale. Ms. Krueger focuses her broad practice on international commercial and investment arbitration matters across a range of industries and jurisdictions. She has acted as counsel and arbitrator in all types of commercial and investment treaty arbitrations seated in civil law and common law jurisdictions worldwide, including Germany, England, France, New York, Peru, South Korea, Japan, and Switzerland. She has represented both private sector and government clients in relation to a variety of sectors, including the oil and gas, energy, pharmaceutical, construction, intellectual property, technology and automobile industries. Her experience includes institutional arbitrations conducted under a variety of arbitral rules, including ICC, LCIA, DIS, SIAC, and UNCITRAL.

Alexander Leventhal is a Partner in Quinn Emanuel’s Paris office. Alexander is a recognized dispute resolution expert who knows how to achieve clients’ objectives. Alexander has extensive expertise in international commercial arbitration spanning multiple sectors, including the hospitality, telecommunications, entertainment, financial, and other sectors.  However, his practice focuses in large part on the energy sector where he has represented clients upstream and downstream in all manner of dispute.  He currently serves the Publications Co-Chair of the Institute for Transnational Arbitration (ITA), an arbitration think tank with a focus on the energy sector and the Energy Committee Secretary of the Institute for Conflict Prevention and Resolution (CPR).

Bridget M. McCormack has been President and CEO of the American Arbitration Association-International Centre for Dispute Resolution since February 2023. Until the end of 2022, McCormack was Chief Justice of the Michigan Supreme Court, selected by other members of the court for the position in January 2019 after she served for six years as a Justice. While on the Court, she championed innovation and the use of technology to improve access to justice.  A graduate of New York University Law School, McCormack started her legal career in New York City. In 1996, she joined the Yale Law School faculty. She then joined the University of Michigan Law School faculty in 1998, where she taught legal ethics, among other subjects, and numerous clinics, was Associate Dean for Clinical Affairs from 2002 until 2012. McCormack was elected to The American Law Institute in 2013. In 2020, she joined the American Bar Association’s (ABA’s) Council on Legal Education and Admission to the Bar. She also chaired the Michigan Judicial Council, the strategic planning body for the judicial branch. In 2021, McCormack was appointed to serve on the ABA’s Center for Innovation’s Governing Council and named Chair of the ABA Board of Elections.  McCormack speaks and writes frequently about access to justice, innovation in the legal profession, and legal education.

Lawrence Newman of Counsel in Baker & McKenzie’s New York office. He practices mainly in the areas of international litigation and arbitration and has represented clients in courts and before arbitration tribunals. Served as arbitrator in cases under the rules of the AAA/ICDR and the International Chamber of Commerce.  Co-editor of The Leading Arbitrators’ Guide to International Arbitration which is the basis of the Leading Arbitrators Symposium on the Conduct of International Arbitration.

Patricia Peterson is qualified in four jurisdictions (France, England, Ontario and Quebec) and specializes in international arbitration and alternative dispute resolution. Having practiced for 30 years in the Paris office of Linklaters LLP, Patricia established her own practice, Peterson//ADR, in 2017 focusing mainly upon work as arbitrator. With a common law and civil law background, Patricia has a broad range of experience, including acting as counsel, arbitrator and emergency arbitrator in international arbitration matters under the rules of major arbitral institutions as well as the UNCITRAL Arbitration Rules.

Nikolaus Pitkowitz is founding partner and head of dispute resolution at Pitkowitz & Partners, and President of the Vienna International Arbitral Centre (VIAC). He acted as arbitrator and party counsel in over 130 international disputes across Europe, in the Americas, and in Asia, among others the largest ever pending arbitration in Austria. Pitkowitz & Partners is a leading international law firm ranked by GAR 100 among the world’s leading arbitration practices.

Catherine Rogers is a scholar of international arbitration and professional ethics at Bocconi University, with a dual appointment as Professor of Ethics, Regulation, and the Rule of Law at Queen Mary, University of London, where she is also Co-Director of the Institute for Ethics and Regulation. Prof. Rogers is a Reporter for the American Law Institute’s Restatement of the U.S. Law of International Commercial and Investor-State Arbitration. Among other appointments, she sits on the Board of Directors of the Lagos Court of Arbitration, the International Advisory Board of the Vienna International Arbitration Centre, the Geneva Center for International Dispute Settlement (CIDS) Academic Forum on ISDS, and the Oxford University Press Investment Claims Advisory Board. She is the Founder and CEO of Arbitrator Intelligence, a global information aggregator and legal tech start-up that aims at improving arbitrator selection.

Lawrence S. Schaner is an independent arbitrator, handling both international and domestic cases.  In his more than three decades of practice, he has acquired broad experience with complex, high stakes business disputes spanning many sectors and industries. Mr. Schaner has been appointed as an arbitrator in more than 85 cases, serving as presiding arbitrator, sole arbitrator, co-arbitrator, and emergency arbitrator.  His experience includes administered and ad hoc matters under many sets of rules, including the AAA, CPR, ICC, ICDR, JAMS, KCAB, LCIA, SCC and UNCITRAL, among others.

Derek Soller is a Partner in the New York office of Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman LLP. Mr. Soller focuses his practice on international arbitration and cross-border dispute resolution, with particular experience in large-scale energy and infrastructure disputes. Mr. Soller has over 10 years of experience representing both investors and states in investor-state arbitrations and private parties in international arbitration, under all common arbitration rules (ICC, AAA, JAMS, LCIA, SIAC, ICSID). He has extensive experience in complex, large-scale disputes, particularly in the energy sector. He takes a commercially minded approach, focusing on avoiding and favorably settling disputes where it is advantageous to do so.

Małgorzata Surdek-Janicka is an independent arbitrator, founder of SURDEK ARBITRATION and Vice-President of the ICC International Court of Arbitration. Before establishing her own independent arbitrator’s practice in autumn 2022, Małgorzata was a dispute resolution partner at CMS with 25 years of experience in the field, and a member of its global International Arbitration Group. She has regularly acted as counsel and arbitrator in infrastructure and construction, post-M&A and commercial disputes in the energy, mining, transportation, technology, and manufacturing sectors.  As counsel she has also represented parties in investment arbitrations in the energy and mining industries. Małgorzata is a fellow of the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators, and a member of the ICC Commission on Arbitration and ADR, the Arbitration Commission at ICC Poland, and the Arbitral Women.

Anna-Maria Tamminen specializes in dispute resolution, with special focus on complex, international disputes. She currently represents parties in mediations, national and international arbitrations, as well as administrative and civil litigations both in Finland and Sweden. She has also acted for clients before the ECJ and the Finnish and Swedish Supreme Courts. Since 2022, Anna-Maria has been in charge of Hannes Snellman’s sanctions advice.

Galina Zukova is a leading arbitration practitioner with almost 20 years of legal experience. Dr. Zukoba has served as an arbitrator (president, sole arbitrator, co-arbitrator and emergency arbitrator alike) in cases conducted under the most major institutional rules, including the ICC, LCIA, DIS, VIAC, SCC and Milan Chamber of Arbitration. She also regularly represents clients (individuals, corporate and state entities), and acts as expert in international arbitration proceedings. Before founding her own firm in 2019, Dr. Zukova was a Partner with a boutique law firm and a lawyer in the top International Arbitration Practice Group of a major international law firm based in Paris.


Accommodations

Hilton Vienna Plaza
Schottenring 11, 1010 Wien, Austria
Tel: +43 1 313900 Email: info.viennaplaza@hilton.com

Anantara Palais Hansen Vienna Hotel
Schottenring 24, 1010 Vienna, Austria
Tel: +43 1 236 1000 8034 Email: rsv.palaishansen@anantara-hotels.com
reference code: “JURIS” to receive preferred conference rates.

Hotel Das Tigra
Tiefer Graben 14-20, 1010 Wien, Austria
Tel: +43 1 5339641 0 Email: info@hotel-tigra.at

Hotel Mercure Wien Zentrum
Fleischmarkt 1a, 1010 Wien, Austria
Tel: +43 1 534600 Email: H0781@accor.com

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