Nishant Choudhary of DFDL Myanmar joins Joyce Fong to unpack Myanmar’s arbitration regime, from the legal framework to enforcement. The discussion explores how Myanmar’s arbitration laws interface with international norms, then turns to the strategic considerations that drive the choice of seat for Myanmar-related disputes. The conversation also assesses the Myanmar courts’ approach to arbitration and enforcement, as well as observable trends in Myanmar-related arbitrations.

Host Joyce Fong and Noppadon (Ton) Treephetchara of DFDL Bangkok discuss Thailand’s arbitration framework, highlighting its Model Law basis, cost-effectiveness, and supportive judiciary. They then compare Thailand with regional alternatives, review institutional preferences (THAC and TAI), and examine local court support. The episode outlines enforcement procedures, timelines, and practical tips, and concludes with trends and THAC’s modernization efforts.  

This episode is recorded in Spanish. Francisco Rodriguez and Gilberto Guerrero-Rocca explore how Latin American states have developed sophisticated, long-term strategies to defend against treaty-based claims. The episode examines the unique challenges these sovereign “repeat players” face, such as budget constraints, political pressures, and transparency issues. The discussion highlights the evolving tactics and contradictions in how these states approach international arbitration. 

International arbitration partner Lucy Winnington-Ingram explores the increasingly significant role of tribunal secretaries in international arbitration. Lucy unpacks the legal and procedural challenges that can arise when tribunal secretaries move beyond their traditional administrative functions and become involved in substantive aspects of decision-making. She then offers practical guidance on how to avoid common pitfalls that could jeopardize the integrity of arbitral proceedings.

Joyce Fong welcomes Afriyan Rachmad (Partner, Nusantara DFDL Partnership) to discuss Indonesia’s dispute resolution landscape. They cover interim court measures, enforcement timelines and procedures, seat selection strategy and practical tips for recognizing foreign awards. The episode also touches on the broader legal environment and recent trends shaping Indonesia-related arbitrations.

Host Gautam Bhattacharyya welcomes Isha Shakir of Henderson Chambers for this episode of Spotlight on… The conversation explores Isha’s decision to enter the legal profession as a barrister, mentors she has benefited from along the way, career highlights to date and what SAHM 2025 means to her.

Reed Smith lawyers Mahmuda Kamalee, Ravi Pattani and Akshay Sevak join host and international arbitration partner, Gautam Bhattacharyya, for a special episode to kick off this year’s SAHM celebrations. In this reflective conversation, our speakers share the inspirations that have shaped their careers and lives, lessons passed down through generations, the best advice they have received (to date!) and what heritage means to them.

Discover the key features of Cambodia's arbitration regime with Joyce Fong and guest speaker Guillaume Massin from DFDL. This episode delves into the practicalities of Cambodia-related arbitrations, including the role of Cambodian courts in supporting arbitral proceedings, the process for enforcing foreign awards, and the most common grounds for challenge. Tune in to hear about the latest trends shaping Cambodia-related arbitrations, along with practical advice for practitioners navigating this dynamic jurisdiction.

Shahwar Jamal Nizam, Partner and Managing Director at DFDL Bangladesh, joins Joyce Fong to provide insight on the arbitration regime in Bangladesh. This episode delves into the availability and enforcement of interim measures in support of arbitration, the procedural steps for enforcing foreign arbitral awards, and the judiciary’s increasingly pro-arbitration approach. Shahwar also examines common grounds for challenging enforcement, providing practical examples and advice for parties navigating the Bangladeshi arbitration landscape, supported by illustrative case studies from recent practice. ----more---- Transcript: Intro: Welcome to Arbitral Insights, a podcast series brought to you by our International Arbitration Practice lawyers here at Reed Smith. I'm Peter Rosher, Global Head of Reed Smith's International Arbitration Practice. I hope you enjoy the industry commentary, insights and anecdotes we share with you in the course of this series, wherever in the world you are. If you have any questions about any of the topics discussed, please do contact our speakers. And with that, let's get started.  Joyce: Welcome to the latest edition of our Arbitral Insights podcast series. I am delighted to have Shahwar Nizam as our guest today. Good afternoon, Shahwar. It's a pleasure to be chatting with you this afternoon. Shahwar: Good afternoon, Joyce. The pleasure is all mine. Thanks for inviting me on this series of podcasts. Joyce: For the benefit of our listeners, Shahwar is the Managing Director of DFDL Bangladesh. He is qualified in Bangladesh, England, Wales, and has substantial experience in the energy and infrastructure industries. So while to kick us off, let's perhaps briefly discuss the arbitration landscape in Bangladesh. I believe that Bangladesh is a signatory to the New York Convention. How does the legal framework support the enforcement of foreign arbitral awards in Bangladesh? Shahwar: So the Bangladesh arbitration landscape is based on the Bangladesh Arbitration Act 2001. And that act is actually based on the UNCITRAL model laws. Bangladesh is a part of the New York Convention, and as part of that, these laws were brought about. So the laws are pretty internationally sort of standardized and quite well drafted. And the implementation of it has also evolved for the betterment of arbitration awards enforcement in Bangladesh over the years. It's basically something that is gaining more and more popularity and it's becoming more and more acceptable. Joyce: Thank you Shahwar, that's really positive to hear. Based on your experience, what are the most common seats for the Foreign Awards which you are seeing coming to be enforced and recognized in Bangladesh? Shahwar: So the most common seat for across the board is actually SISC. Because of the proximity of Singapore and because of the fact that SISC has actually done a lot of outreach programs in Bangladesh, it is commonly perceived to be sort of more usable, user-friendly. So Singapore has done a pretty good job in sort of showcasing itself as a neutral venue. From a cost perspective it's uh you know it's closer to bangladesh than say London or anywhere else and now i mean it's more difficult to get to Hong Kong than Singapore so you know SISC has taken the pole position in terms of the popularity of all the arbitration venues but having said that for a lot of the government contracts we see exit arbitrations you have the trade association arbitrations as well you know like the London Sugar Association for shipping we see a lot of LMA arbitration. We see for cotton and textiles, we see the Liverpool Cotton Association arbitrations. We see the Phosphor arbitrations as well. And also in any event, HKAIC, the Hong Kong Arbitration Centre, historically has been quite prominent as well. So we still see some of that, especially with Chinese parties on the other side. And also ICC Paris, ICC London. I mean, all of these are quite sort of prominent for arbitra

Esha Kamboj, attorney-advisor for Asia-Pacific with the U.S. Department of Commerce's Commercial Law Development Program, joins Rebeca Mosquera to share her professional journey from private legal practice to her current governmental role. She discusses the motivations behind her transition, the skills and experiences that shaped her approach to international arbitration, and the evolving ADR landscape in the Asia-Pacific region.

As the Hong Kong International Arbitration Centre celebrates its 40th anniversary, Reed Smith’s J.P. Duffy welcomes Secretary-General Joanne Lau to discuss the center’s major milestones, including the launch of its Beijing office and the updated 2024 rules. J.P. and Ms. Lau explore trends in the HKIAC’s caseload, its goals for the next five to 10 years, and its strategies for maintaining its leadership in dispute resolution across the Asia-Pacific Region and beyond. ----more---- Transcript: Intro: Hello and welcome to Arbitral Insights, a podcast series brought to you by our international arbitration practice lawyers here at Reed Smith. I'm Peter Rosher, Global Head of Reed Smith's International Arbitration Practice. I hope you enjoy the industry commentary, insights and anecdotes we share with you in the course of this series, wherever in the world you are. If you have any questions about any of the topics discussed, please do contact our speakers. And with that, let's get started.  JP: Welcome back to the next episode of Arbitral Insights, in which we'll discuss recent developments at the Hong Kong International Arbitration Center with Joanne Lau, who is the HKIAC Secretary General. I'm JP Duffy. I'm an international arbitration partner based in New York that acts as both counsel and arbitrator and international arbitration seated around the world under a variety of governing laws and arbitral rules. I'm qualified in New York, England, and Wales, and the DIFC courts in Dubai, where I previously practiced. I routinely represent clients in arbitrations involving China and East Asia, and I also have the good fortune to be listed on the HKIAC Arbitrator panel. With us today is Joanne Lau. Joanne is the HKIAC Secretary General and Principal Officer, which is a role she assumed just about a year ago in February 2024. Prior to becoming the HKIC Secretary General, Joanne was an international arbitration partner at Allen & Ophrey in Hong Kong, where she practiced for over a decade. Joanne brings a wealth of experience with us today and a wealth of information, and we're really lucky and grateful to have her speaking with us. So thank you, Joanne, and welcome. Joanne: Thank you for having me. JP: Great. Well, we're so glad you can join. Let me begin just by setting the table a bit and giving a bit of background information on the HKIAC. While it doesn't need any introduction because it's so well known, there may be listeners in the U.S. Or elsewhere that are less familiar, so I'll just start by giving a bit of background there. Celebrating its 40th anniversary this year, the HKIAC is an independent, not-for-profit arbitral administrator that was established in Hong Kong in 1985 by a group of leading business people to provide dispute resolution services in Asia. It provides a full range of alternative dispute resolution services, including arbitration, mediation, adjudication, and domain name dispute resolution. Joanne will discuss them in greater detail later on, but the HKIAC also has some of the most modern and innovative arbitration rules in the world, having just updated its rules last year that took effect on 1st June 2024. The HKIAC also offers state-of-the-art hearing facilities that were ranked first worldwide for location, value, IT services, and staff helpfulness. To give you an idea of how prominent the HKIAC is globally, the 2021 Queen Mary Survey, which most listeners will know, also found that the HKIAC is the third most preferred used arbitral institution globally. And in 2023, it received more than 281 arbitration cases, with a total amount in controversy of approximately $12.5 billion. Around 90% of the administered cases are international. So clearly, the HKIAC has accomplished amazing things in its first 40 years, and we're really lucky to have Joanne tell us more about it. So with that, let's turn to Joanne so we hear more from her and less from me. And let's start by talking about the HKIAC's ca

Reed Smith partner Gautam Bhattacharyya sits down with Professor Yarik Kryvoi, Senior Research Fellow in International Economic Law and Director of the Investment Treaty Forum at the British Institute of International and Comparative Law. Yarik reflects on his career journey, highlighting the mentors who influenced his path. The duo then discuss the interplay between corruption and arbitration, the evolving role of public international law in the global legal landscape, and the intricacies of sanctions regimes and their impact on arbitration, before turning to the challenges arbitrators face when navigating these complex issues – and Yarik's love of judo. ----more---- Transcript: Intro: Hello and welcome to Arbitral Insights, a podcast series brought to you by our international arbitration practice lawyers here at Reed Smith. I'm Peter Rosher, Global Head of Reed Smith's International Arbitration Practice. I hope you enjoy the industry commentary, insights and anecdotes we share with you in the course of this series, wherever in the world you are. If you have any questions about any of the topics discussed, please do contact our speakers. And with that, let's get started.  Gautam: Hello, everyone, and welcome back to our Spotlight On podcast series. And I'm delighted that our spotlight today is on Professor Yarik Kryvoi. Hello, Yarik.  Yarik: Hi, Gautam.  Gautam: It's really nice to see you. Yarik is a senior fellow at the British Institute of International and Comparative Law, and he's also a director at the Investment Treaty Forum and a very well-noted and well-regarded academic in the areas of public international law and associated areas. So it's a real pleasure to be doing this podcast with you, Yarik, and I look forward to our discussion. There's going to be a number of things that we're going to talk about, which I know our listeners will find very, very interesting, given your very, very interesting background and your areas of specialism. So thank you again for joining me, Yarik.  Yarik: My pleasure.  Gautam: So let me first of all ask you about your background and if you could tell our listeners a little bit about your background and what drew you to the areas of international arbitration and public law, which of course you specialize in and which you teach.  Yarik: Yes, happy to talk about that So I've been in London for around 15 years of my life, so the last 15 years. And I first came here to work as an associate at one London-based law firm And prior to that I was based in Washington, D.C. where I also worked for another law firm doing primarily international arbitration work and going back prior to that Immediately prior to that I did an LLM at Harvard Law School, and prior to that, I was based in my home country, which is Belarus. So I was born in Belarus, I grew up there, but I did my first law degree actually in Russia. And after that, I also did degrees in England, in the Netherlands, and in the United States. So my path towards international arbitration was not very straightforward, because initially I was more interested in public international law, in international labor law, so more public side of public international law, if I may say so. But then I understood that there is not that much work for people who do just purely PIL. And if you want to work with international law issues, then you need to be a bit more of a generalist and be flexible and do commercial arbitration. And at some point, I discovered the area of investor-state arbitration, which is somewhere on the border between public international law and domestic law. So you have an interaction of domestic legal systems and public international law, important public policy issues are also decided in this context. And that was intellectually challenging, and that was also something quite sophisticated and quite new at that time. Even though I was in Washington, D.C., at that time, the area of ISDS was not as well-developed and as fanc

J.P. Duffy is joined by Jeff Zaino, vice president of the AAA-ICDR's Commercial Division, to discuss the AAA's upcoming centenary and its enduring reputation as a trusted choice for resolving commercial conflicts across industries. The conversation delves into the AAA's significant milestones and accomplishments, highlighting its commitment to innovation, including its approach to AI and the recent appointment of Bridget McCormack as president and CEO. ----more---- Transcript: Intro: Hello and welcome to Arbitral Insights, a podcast series brought to you by our international arbitration practice lawyers here at Reed Smith. I'm Peter Rosher, Global Head of Reed Smith's International Arbitration Practice. I hope you enjoy the industry commentary, insights and anecdotes we share with you in the course of this series, wherever in the world you are. If you have any questions about any of the topics discussed, please do contact our speakers. And with that, let's get started.  J.P.: Welcome back to the next episode of Arbitral Insights, in which we'll discuss the American Arbitration Association with Jeff Zaino, who's the vice president of the AAA's commercial division. I'm J.P. Duffy. I'm an international arbitration partner based in New York that acts as both counsel and arbitrator in international arbitration seated around the world under a variety of governing laws and arbitral rules. I'm qualified in New York, England, and Wales in the DIFC courts in Dubai, where I previously lived and practiced. I routinely represent clients and arbitrations involving a range of issues and frequently sit as an arbitrator in commercial disputes as well. I also have the good fortune to be a member of the AAA's commercial division arbitrator roster, the ICDR panel, and I'm a member of the AAA-ICDR Life Sciences Steering Committee and a member of the ICDR Publications Committee as well. So I get to do a lot with the AAA, which is really a wonderful organization. As I mentioned, with me today is Jeff Zaino, who's the vice president of the commercial division of the AAA in New York. He oversees administration of the large, complex commercial caseload, user outreach, and panel of commercial neutrals in New York. He joined the association in 1990, and Mr. Zaino is dedicated to promoting ADR methods and services. He's also written and published extensively on the topics of electronic reform and ADR, including several podcasts with the ABA, talks on law, and corporate counsel business. And he's appeared on CNN, MSNBC, and Bloomberg to discuss national election reform efforts and the Help America Vote Act. He was deemed a 2018 Alternative Dispute Resolution Champion by the National Law Journal and received awards for his ADR work from the National Academy of Arbitrators, Region 2 and Long Island Labor and Employment Relations Association. In 2022, Jeff received the Alicott Lieber Younger Committee of the Year Award for the New York State Bar Association Commercial and Federal Litigation Section. And in 2023, the Chairman's Award, NYSBA Dispute Resolution Section. So as you can tell, Jeff is a highly experienced, highly lauded arbitration expert, but we're really lucky to have his valuable insights today. So before we begin with some of the substance, let me just give a little bit of background on the AAA and the commercial division so that those that are less familiar have a little bit of information about what we're going to discuss today. The AAA is a non-profit alternative dispute resolution service provider headquartered in New York that administers arbitrations, mediations, and other forms of dispute resolution, such as ombudsperson and dispute avoidance training. It was founded in 1926 to provide an alternative to civil court proceedings, and that makes the AAA one of the oldest arbitral institutions in the world, as well as one of the largest, having administered over 11,553 business-to-business cases in 2023 alone, with a total value o

Mehak Oberoi, Legal Head/General Counsel for GE Vernova, Hydro Power, joins Niyati Ahuja to discuss the importance of lawyers understanding business needs and the intricacies of construction disputes, emphasizing the importance of claim avoidance and the challenge of finding the right arbitrators for a case. The conversation covers top tips for minimizing risks during the construction phase, including detailed briefings and early involvement of project managers, before discussing the impact of technology on dispute resolution. ----more---- Transcript: Intro: Hello and welcome to Arbitral Insights, a podcast series brought to you by our international arbitration practice lawyers here at Reed Smith. I'm Peter Rosher, Global Head of Reed Smith's International Arbitration Practice. I hope you enjoy the industry commentary, insights and anecdotes we share with you in the course of this series, wherever in the world you are. If you have any questions about any of the topics discussed, please do contact our speakers. And with that, let's get started.  Niyati: Welcome to today's episode of our Arbitral Insights podcast. I am Niyati Ahuja, a senior associate in the International Arbitration and Global Commercial Disputes Group in Reed Smith New York. I'm duly qualified in New York and India. My work involves both commercial and investor state arbitration, white collar investigations and litigation proceedings in New York. I'm delighted to have Mehak Oberoi with us today. Mehak is currently the legal head and general counsel for General Electrics for NOVA in Asia Hydropower, APAC. She has over 17 years of experience during which he has helped businesses develop and implement legal strategies for the renewables business on a wide array of legal issues facilitating seamless business operations and commercial transactions, deal negotiations, and offering critical legal insights to the board, ensuring an alignment with organizational objectives and compliance. Welcome, Mehek. We'll start very quickly with learning more about your career path. Could you just spend a few minutes telling us about what your career has looked like so far? Mehak: So I finished law school in 2008. I worked with a couple of law firms in India for about seven years. And that's when I moved to General Electric. And I hopped around various businesses of GE. So I've seen a lot of businesses being bought and sold and acquired. So all of that. And now for the last five years have been with the renewable piece of GE. Niyati: That's very interesting. Thank you. One thing that I love to ask and understand about is who has been your inspiration in your personal or professional life or somebody like a mentor? Who would you think is that one person or two or three, as you wish? Mehak: So I'm actually a first generation lawyer so I wouldn't I mean as far as my field is concerned I don't think I really have a role model from my within my family but when I was in third year law college I interned with Pepsi and at that time the the VP of legal was Mr. V.R Shankar. So I think he is the one who really started grooming me and helped me understand that this is something that I would possibly like to do. So yeah, so he was, I think, my first mentor. Then I think once I moved into GE, I had a couple of them over here because in-house legal work was very new to me. I think for all people who work in a law firm would understand that work in a law firm versus work in-house is very different the way the way it is structured whether it's process or just general day-to-day work is very different so I think I needed some hand holding in the beginning so I had some good people at that time also to help me out. Niyati: Well that's that's really nice to hear that there were people helping because it's sometimes hard to find just people who help you when you need hand holding so that's that's nice to hear. Mehak, can you tell us a little bit more about so you said you started with law

J.P. Duffy welcomes Luis Martinez, vice president of the ICDR, and Thara Gopalan, director of arbitration and ADR for the Asia-Pacific region, to discuss the organization and its strategic plans for expansion in Asia. Together, they explore the ICDR’s role in the global arbitration landscape, the opportunities and challenges that lie ahead in this dynamic region, and the potential impact of these developments on the global arbitration community. ----more---- Transcript: Intro: Hello and welcome to Arbitral Insights, a podcast series brought to you by our international arbitration practice lawyers here at Reed Smith. I'm Peter Rosher, Global Head of Reed Smith's International Arbitration Practice. I hope you enjoy the industry commentary, insights, and anecdotes we share with you in the course of this series, wherever in the world you are. If you have any questions about any of the topics discussed, please do contact our speakers. And with that, let's get started.  J.P.: Welcome back to the next episode of Arbitral Insights, in which we will discuss the ICDR and its Asia initiatives with Luis Martinez and Thara Gopalan, who are both vice presidents of the International Center for Dispute Resolution, or ICDR. I'm J.P. Duffy. I'm an international arbitration partner with Reed Smith, based in New York, that acts as both counsel and arbitrator in international arbitration seated around the world under a variety of governing laws and arbitral rules. I'm qualified in New York, England, and Wales, and the DIFC courts in Dubai where I previously practiced. I also have the good fortune to be listed on the ICDR arbitrator roster and to regularly sit as an arbitrator in ICDR Matters, as well as acting as counsel in arbitration governed by the ICDR rules. We're very fortunate to have with us today a repeat guest, Luis Martinez. Luis is the vice president for the ICDR, which is the international division of the American Arbitration Association. Luis is responsible for their business development covering the East Coast of the United States, Latin America, the Caribbean, the EU, and the UK. He's co-chair of the ABA's International Arbitration Committee and an honorary president of the Inter-American Commercial Arbitration Commission. He's admitted to practice in New York and New Jersey and is a dual citizen of Spain and the United States. And our third guest today is Thara Gopalan. Thara leads the ICDR in Asia and is based in the organization's Asian headquarters in Singapore. Thara brings extensive experience in commercial disputes to the table. Prior to joining the ICDR, she was a commercial disputes attorney, representing clients in international arbitrations and at all levels of the Singapore courts. Her expertise spans a wide range of industries, and she has a proven track record of successfully navigating complex legal issues, including high stakes to bet the company disputes. So as you can see, we have excellent guests today, and Luis and Thara will be able to tell us not just about the ICDR's ongoing initiatives around the world, but in Asia in particular. So we're really looking forward to hearing their insights. Let me just set the table a bit by talking for a moment about the ICDR for those that aren't as familiar with it. The ICDR was established in 1996 and is the international division of the AAA, which was itself founded in 1926. The ICDR provides dispute resolution services to businesses and organizations around the world in cross-border matters and administers all arbitrations filed with the AAA that have an international component. While it's based in New York, the ICDR has offices in Houston, Miami, Chicago, Los Angeles, and Singapore. And it also maintains a separate group called ICDR Canada for Canadian disputes. The ICDR has some of the most modern rules in the world, which it last revised in 2021. And you can learn more about those innovations in a podcast I recorded with Luis in April 2021 that's available

Gautam Bhattacharyya welcomes Rebeca Mosquera, Reed Smith senior associate and the President of ArbitralWomen. Rebeca shares her career journey, detailing her path from Panama to Alaska, and then to New York, the mentors who have shaped her path, and the inspirations that fuel her future. The conversation then discusses the significance of ArbitralWomen, its notable achievements to date, and Rebeca's vision for the association's future reach and impact. ----more---- Transcript:  Intro: Hello and welcome to Arbitral Insights, a podcast series brought to you by our international arbitration practice lawyers here at Reed Smith. I'm Peter Rosher, Global Head of Reed Smith's International Arbitration Practice. I hope you enjoy the industry commentary, insights and anecdotes we share with you in the course of this series, wherever in the world you are. If you have any questions about any of the topics discussed, please do contact our speakers. And with that, let's get started. Gautam: Hello, everyone, and welcome to our latest edition of our Spotlight On podcast series. And I'm delighted today to have as my guest, the fabulous Rebeca Mosquera, who is not only one of my colleagues at Reed Smith, based in our New York office, but is also the president of ArbitralWomen and does a wonderful role in that position and is a real champion for women in the world of international arbitration. In all its various forms. Hello, Rebeca. Rebeca: Hello, Gautam. Thank you for the introduction and for the invitation. I don't know if you know this, but I have been following Spotlight On for a while now. And so it's exciting to finally be on the other side of the microphone today. Gautam: Well, it's fabulous to have you. And I'm looking forward to our discussion, not least because we're going to be covering some topics I know of very much mutual interest and ones on which you are perfectly qualified to give us your thoughts. One of the things that I think is always wonderful is someone's background, how they got to where they are now. And I know because I know you well, Rebeca, that you've got a very interesting background to how you are where you are now as a senior attorney at Reed Smith in our New York office. It's a fascinating background and I wonder if we could begin with that and I could hand over to you to tell our listeners about your background, your journey to where you've got to where you are today. Rebeca: Absolutely, Gautam. So as you know, I was born and raised in Panama, where my legal career started, mainly focusing on corporate transactions and domestic disputes. But, you know, life took a surprising turn when I moved to Alaska to work with Shell Oil. At Shell, I was involved in upstream and exploration work, which was an extraordinary experience. It truly gave me a deeper understanding of the business side of a large corporation. And I think that is something crucial for any attorney who wants to be well-rounded. After my time with Shell, I moved back into private practice, and that's when I had my first exposure to investor state arbitration, which is what I do now. It was a construction dispute, and I found myself learning everything about asphalt viscosity because the case centered on the rehabilitation of a major road network, part of the Pan American Highway that stretches across the Americas. And at that time, I had just finished my master's of science in project management. So that became real handy. And it was fascinating. And that's when I realized I wanted to dive deeper into this area of law. And that led me to further my studies at NYU, get dual qualified in New York. I was already qualified in Panama since 2004, 2005. And from there, I've had the opportunity to work on many international disputes, which has been both challenging and incredibly rewarding. Gautam: Yeah, it's a real fascinating story you've got there, Rebeca, because, you know, you know, you're a native Spanish speaker. You had to learn English

J.P. Duffy welcomes Serena Lee, the new President and CEO of the International Institute for Conflict Prevention & Resolution (CPR), for an engaging discussion about CPR's foundational principles, its unique origin as an organization dedicated to helping corporations, and the influential role it plays in the global arbitration community. Serena explains CPR’s inner workings, delves into recent case statistics, and shares her vision for CPR’s future. ----more---- Transcript: Intro: Hello and welcome to Arbitral Insights, a podcast series brought to you by our international arbitration practice lawyers here at Reed Smith. I'm Peter Rosher, Global Head of Reed Smith's International Arbitration Practice. I hope you enjoy the industry commentary, insights and anecdotes we share with you in the course of this series, wherever in the world you are. If you have any questions about any of the topics discussed, please do contact our speakers. And with that, let's get started.  J.P.: Welcome back to the next episode of Arbitral Insights, in which we'll discuss the International Institute for Conflict Resolution, known in the legal community as CPR, with Serena Lee, who's CPR's new president and CEO. I'm J.P. Duffy. I'm an international arbitration partner based in New York that acts as both counsel and arbitrator and international arbitration seated around the world under a variety of governing laws and arbitral rules. I'm qualified in New York, England, and Wales, and the DIFC courts in Dubai, where I previously practiced. I also have the good fortune to be listed on the CPR arbitrator roster, which is called the Panel of Distinguished Neutrals. With me today, as I mentioned, is Serena K. Lee. Serena is a lawyer qualified in New York who previously practiced on the West Coast. Before joining CPR, Serena served as the Vice President of Operations for JAMS in San Francisco, where she managed three resolution centers, San Francisco, Santa Rosa, and Seattle, and oversaw approximately 85 neutrals. And before that, Serena was vice president with the AAA in the construction and commercial divisions, first in Seattle and then San Francisco. So as you can tell, Serena brings a wealth of experience and perspective to her new role and to the audience. And we're thrilled to have her because she's a very recent addition to CPR. She's going to give us some updates on everything that CPR has been up to and what she plans for CPR to do. Before we begin, let me just give some brief background information about CPR itself for those that aren't as familiar with it. CPR was established in 1977 in New York by James F. Henry to help businesses find better ways to resolve commercial disputes. CPR does this through the CPR Institute, which acts as a think tank and a thought leader, and through the CPR Institute's subsidiary, CPR Dispute Resolution Services, which provides dispute resolution and prevention services to users, including the administration of CPR's arbitration rules. CPR has a unique origin because it was established by in-house counsel from Fortune 100 companies to bring together corporate counsel and their law firm clients to collaborate on ways to reduce dispute resolution costs by finding alternatives to court litigation. Today, CPR has a membership community that comprises corporate counsel, law firms, academics, and neutrals. Over the decades, this unique membership community has produced a variety of thought leadership pieces, and innovative yet practical rules for arbitration and mediation, as well as the CPR pledge, which more than 4,000 companies and 1,500 law firms have signed to show their commitment to considering ADR for the speed resolution. So as you can tell, CPR, while it is an arbitral administrator, does a lot more and is relatively unique in the space in the way that it operates. So with that, let's turn to Serena a bit, because I want to hear from her about everything that CPR has been up to. Serena, welcome. 

Gautam Bhattacharyya welcomes Eunice Shang-Simpson (arbitrator, mediator, and lecturer-practitioner) to discuss her career journey, including key roles as a prosecutor, policy advisor, and practitioner. They explore her career highlights, transformational moments, and inspirations, before discussing the challenges and opportunities for improving parity and access in the legal profession, and how the industry can evolve to support future legal professionals. ----more---- Transcript: Intro: Hello and welcome to Arbitral Insights, a podcast series brought to you by our International Arbitration Practice lawyers here at Reed Smith. I'm Peter Rosher, Global Head of Reed Smith's International Arbitration Practice. I hope you enjoy the industry commentary, insights and anecdotes we share with you in the course of this series, wherever in the world you are. If you have any questions about any of the topics discussed, please do contact our speakers. And with that, let's get started. Gautam: Hello everyone and welcome back to our latest edition of our Spotlight on Arbitral Insights podcast series and I'm delighted to have with us today as my guest the fabulous Eunice Shang-Simpson. Hello Eunice. Eunice: Hello Gautam, thank you very much for that. Gautam: It's really good to see you and I'm going to introduce you like I always do and in these things my challenge with introducing you, is to try to keep it to a manageable amount because you're such an illustrious person. But I'm going to try and do this as summarily as I can. So for our listeners, Eunice, apart from being a great friend, is an international arbitrator, mediator, and speaker. Eunice was formerly a council member of the Law Society of England and Wales. She is currently a lecturer practitioner at Canterbury Christ Church University in England and has recently achieved her PhD. Many congratulations again on that, Eunice. A superb achievement. And we'll touch upon your PhD thesis in the course of our podcast. She focuses in terms of her practice in international trade and investment arbitration, including investor state dispute resolution. Eunice is a member of the Ghana Bar, as well as being a solicitor advocate here in England and Wales. And she truly is, as I said in the course of my introduction a while ago, very illustrious. She also has experience of being a Crown Prosecutor and advising on policy. She, as I mentioned, is also an academic and we'll touch upon that in the course of our podcast. One other thing, and the great thing about doing these podcasts is we get constant updates. And just on this morning of this podcast, just before we were about to record this, I noted the wonderful news that Eunice has been made a Freeman, but I'd like to say a Freewoman or a free person of the Worshipful Company of Arbitrators. And that was further to a ceremony last week in London at the Mansion House that's a really wonderful accolade Eunice and that really is it's just so well deserved. I saw the photographs and uh and you know and I must say your outfit was absolutely stunning I've got to tell you, you wore traditional clothes. Absolutely you were looking wonderful I've got to tell you. So thanks again for being on and I'm much looking forward to our podcast, Eunice. Eunice: Thank you, Gautam. That's amazing. Thank you for that introduction. It's such an honor. Thank you very much for inviting me. Gautam: No, thank you. Now, let's start with how you found law or how law found you. So why don't you tell our listeners what first drew you to the law? Eunice: Well, I've always been insatiably curious, I must say, since I was a child, always asking why, why not, and stuff like that. I'm the eldest of three with two younger brothers. I grew up with a close family and spent lots of holidays at my grandparents' home in Ghana in Cape Coast with several cousins. And I always seemed to be the one prepared to negotiate, you know, later bedtime hours, extra treats for eve

José Astigarraga hosts Jason File, Director of Legal Affairs and General Counsel at the United States Council for International Business (USCIB), to discuss global arbitration trends, the future of international arbitration, and AI's impact on the field. They go on to explore Jason’s role at the USCIB, his career trajectory, and the distinctions in advocacy before international criminal, civil, and common law tribunals. ----more---- Transcript: Intro: Hello and welcome to Arbitral Insights, a podcast series brought to you by our International Arbitration Practice lawyers here at Reed Smith. I'm Peter Rosher, Global Head of Reed Smith's International Arbitration Practice. I hope you enjoy the industry commentary, insights and anecdotes we share with you in the course of this series, wherever in the world you are. If you have any questions about any of the topics discussed, please do contact our speakers. And with that, let's get started.  José: Well, welcome, everyone. I am José Astigarraga , and I'm delighted to share this program with you. Very, very pleased to tell you that today we have Jason File, who, as I have the pleasure of sharing with you, is the new general counsel and representative of the USCIB in the United States. And I think we're going to have a really, really interesting conversation with Jason today. Let me tell you a little bit about Jason. He is currently the director of legal affairs for the U.S. Council for International Business in New York. He's a licensed attorney, has a very interesting background. He's licensed in New York, District of Columbia, England, and Wales as well. He's a graduate of Yale University as well as the University of Oxford and Yale Law School and is bilingual. He speaks English and French. He's had a very interesting career. Jason worked as a trial attorney in public and private international law since about 2005, and he began his career with WilmerHale, of course, the top of the top firms in international commercial and investor state arbitrations in a very wide range of cases that he had. Then as well, he worked with Cooley Firm in New York, again, working international commercial arbitrations in investor state, and as well did some court litigation related to the federal arbitration and the New York Convention. And I'll call it arbitration-related litigation. One very, very interesting aspect of Jason's career that I hope we'll have a chance to discuss is that he served as a war crimes prosecutor at a United Nations International Criminal Tribunal, and we'll hear about that. To top it off as well, Jason has taught international law in Europe and has spoken all over the world. So, Jason, welcome. I'm just so pleased that you've made time for us to be able to speak. Perhaps the most logical place to start might be to ask you about, can you tell us about your new position?  Jason: Absolutely. And thank you, José, for inviting me to be a guest on this. And thanks to Reed Smith for hosting. I think it's a great program that you guys have. Getting the word out about arbitration across the world and in the United States is one of the main focuses actually of my new position. I've been in the job now for about four months, Director of Legal Affairs. We have USCIB is a wide ranging business organization that represents the interests interests of our members in many different international organizations, UN, OECD, IOE, and the ICC. And one of our many components of certain policy areas and issue areas is arbitration. We serve as the U.S. National Committee for Arbitration at the ICC. We constitute and we lead the U.S. delegation to the ICC Commission on Arbitration and ADR. We have a nominations Nations Commission, which responds to requests from the Secretariat of the ICC when there is a need for an institutional appointment for arbitrators in pending ICC cases. They come to us with requests to end arbitrators in cases where there's a connection to the U.S. They're either l

Andrew Tetley welcomes Prof. Dr. Eckart Brödermann, Managing Partner of Brödermann Jahn (Hamburg), to discuss the UNIDROIT Principles. The conversation delves into Eckart’s long-standing connection with these Principles, his authoritative commentary on them, and his practical experience applying them in business and arbitration. The discussion also touches on the benefits of the Principles and offers a glimpse into Eckart’s life beyond the law. ----more---- Transcript:  Intro: Hello and welcome to Arbitral Insights, a podcast series brought to you by our International Arbitration Practice lawyers here at Reed Smith. I'm Peter Rosher, Global Head of Reed Smith's International Arbitration Practice. I hope you enjoy the industry commentary, insights and anecdotes we share with you in the course of this series, wherever in the world you are. If you have any questions about any of the topics discussed, please do contact our speakers. And with that, let's get started. Andrew: Good morning. I'm Andrew Tetley, a partner at Reed Smith in the Paris office. Welcome back to Arbitral Insights. I'm joined today by Eckart Brödermann, who is a professor in Hamburg, long-time involvement in arbitration, and founding partner of his law firm in Hamburg, Brödermann Jahn. The subject that we will be touching on in some depth is the UNIDROIT Principles of International Commercial Contracts, but also hopefully getting to know a little bit more about Eckart for those Music. of you who know him, learning something new, and for those of you who don't, learning about him from scratch. So welcome, Eckart, and thank you for giving your time over for this podcast. Eckart: Thank you so much. Good morning. Andrew: Let's start with a short introduction. So tell us a little bit about your background and your association with the UNIDROIT principles of international commercial contracts. Eckart: My background, in a nutshell, at age 18, I left Germany. I spent four years in your beautiful city of Paris. DEUG, licence, maitrise fully studied in Paris, then moved on to Harvard. At that time, Germany wouldn't recognize any title from Paris. And Harvard said, I don't care whether you studied in Germany or in Paris. So I spent my time there where I started focusing on Chinese law, East Asian Legal Studies program. Thereafter, took the New York Bar, worked in a large law firm in Washington, D.C., Steptoe & Johnson. At age 24, decided what to do at age 40. I don't have any education in my home country, so I went back and started studying for the third time. Since my second studies, I financed everything myself, including loans to finance Harvard, and I always worked part-time in the legal business to finance all that. And ever since, I'm working, I'm loving the law, and I'm giving full speed. But, of course, I learned that the same thing you learn in one country happens to be wrong in the other country. You also learn that the problems of the people and of the companies are all over similar. In the end, we want to realize our dreams, we want to build business, we want to realize business plans, and for that we need tools. And I always have been both on the contracting side and on the arbitration side. Arbitration, I got to grow with the Iran Claims Tribunal in the early 80s and the UNCITRAL Rules. So, with that said, how did I bump into the UNIDROIT principles? In the beginning, I was, as many possibly in the audience have never heard about that, it starts with the word UNIDROIT. UNIDROIT is an abbreviation. It's a French abbreviation for the international organization called International Institute for the Unification of Private Law. And that in French, Institut pour l'Université de Droit, Privé, c'est Unidroit. So in 2001, I was in an arbitration in Switzerland. Huge stuff about orbital slots, relationship to several countries. I kind of also fell into that case as second counsel in the beginning. The case was fired out of Asia, and somewhere on a pla