To mark the launch of its Young Arbitrators Forum (YAF), ICC hosted a weekend-conference especially designed for lawyers and in-house counsel under the age of 40. In collaboration with the YAF US chapter, the training took place in Barcelona on 27-29 June and offered a rare opportunity for younger lawyers and in-house counsel working in the field of international arbitration to spend a weekend training with renowned arbitrators, members of the ICC International Court of Arbitration and its Secretariat. Everyone agreed that this first ICC YAF week-end-conference was a complete success, with a good balance between academic hours and social activities in a friendly and informal atmosphere.
ICC YAF’s main objectives are to create a global group of young arbitration practitioners and assure interesting academic and social networking events. It is composed of the ICC YAF Global Coordinating Committee, based at ICC’s International Secretariat in Paris, and five ICC YAF Regional Chapters. Each Regional Chapter is in turn composed of the relevant ICC Regional Director and that region’s Regional Coordinating Committee, consisting of three volunteers, for which applications are open until 12 September 2008. Interested applicants should see the information at http://www.iccyaf.org
The Barcelona weekend offered 6 hours of academic training with stars and rising stars in arbitration, including plenary sessions and informal debates along with parallel workshops designed especially for in-house counsel and lawyers. The incoming Chairman of the ICC Court, John Beechey, participated on Sunday to welcome the creation of the ICC YAF and share his experiences. On Saturday, after an introduction and welcome by Jason Fry, Secretary General of the ICC Court and Mercedes Tarrazón, Member for Spain of the ICC International Court of Arbitration, participants had the opportunity of hearing “the arbitrators’ expectations from counsel” by Bernardo Cremades, Senior Partner of B. Cremades & Asociados, and Council Member of the ICC Institute of World Business Law, and by Peter Sherwin, Partner at Proskauer Rose, and Member of ICC Arbitration Commission. Discussions then went on “how does the Court deal with multiparty contracts and the scrutiny of Award by the Court”, by Loretta Malintoppi, Attorney-at-Law at Eversheds, and Alternate Member of the ICC International Court of Arbitration and by Simon Greenberg, Deputy Secretary General of the ICC Court.
Two parallel workshops followed. The first, for lawyers, on “advocacy in international arbitration”, by Antonio Crivellaro, Professor and Partner at Bonelli Erede Papallardo Studio Legale and Council Member of ICC Institute of World Business Law and by Homayoon Arfazadeh, Attorney-at-Law at Python & Peter, Switzerland, and the second for in-house counsel on “actively manage your arbitration process”, where Karl Hennessee, Vice President, Litigation and Regulatory Affairs, GCL Central Legal Affairs at Airbus SAS, answered numerous questions from lawyers regarding the conduct of arbitrations from the corporate perspective.
Saturday finished with a plenary session on “preliminary measures in international arbitration”, by Laurence Shore, Partner at Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher LLP, and Roland Ziadé, Attorney-at-Law at Cleary, Gottlieb, Steen & Hamilton.
Just before dinner, participants were presented a Masterclass by Laurent Lévy, Partner at Levy Kauffmann-Kohler and Council Member of the ICC Institute of World Business Law, offering frank advice from a very experienced arbitrator’s perspective.
To help strengthen links within the young arbitration community, networking opportunities were worked into the programme. Throughout the weekend, participants had the opportunity to take a photo journalistic tour of the city, discover Gaudi’s works of art or visit the city by bicycle and even to have dinner at the beach. Participants enjoyed these social activities mixed with academic hours in a very informal atmosphere and by Saturday evening numerous participants were asking about plans for the next ICC YAF event.
