Arbitral Insights Reed Smith

Kristin Campbell-Wilson, executive director of the recently launched Abu Dhabi International Arbitration Centre (known as arbitrateAD), talks with Dubai-based partner Antonia Birt and associate Laura Adams about the establishment and mission of arbitrateAD. They delve into how the centre fits into the global arbitration landscape, how it differentiates itself from its competitors, and what the new rules will offer arbitration users.

Gautam Bhattacharyya is delighted to welcome arbitrator Hasit Seth for a conversation that delves into Hasit’s career trajectory and discusses the individuals who have shaped his professional journey and influenced his approach to arbitration. The duo then explore the evolving landscape of arbitration and thoughts for the future.  

Explore the art of cross-examination in international arbitration with J.P. Duffy and Raj Pillai KC (3VB). In this episode, the duo discusses strategic insights, preparation techniques, tribunal expectations, and question dynamics that lead to effective cross-examination.
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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 which will discuss effective cross examination and international arbitration with Raj Pillai KC, who's a barrister at 3VB in London. I'm J.P. Duffy. I'm an international arbitration partner based in New York that acts as both council and arbitrator and international arbitration seated around the world under a variety of governing laws and arbitral rules. I participate in several hearings a year as both council and arbitrator in which witnesses are cross-examined and can offer a more American point of view on this subject. As I mentioned with me today is Raj Pillai, who's a King's Council based in London. He acts in international arbitrations and also appears in English courts and various others including the BVI, Abu Dhabi and Singapore. His role is generally as lead advocate. So he will determine strategy with the client and the legal team and then run the arguments and carry out the cross-examinations. Raj is gonna offer some insights based on both common law litigation and his arbitration experience. So welcome Raj and thank you for joining us today. 
Raj: Thanks J.P. Nice to be here. 
J.P.: So let me begin by talking about the importance of cross examination in international arbitration so that we can set the stage of it for our discussion. As many of the listeners will know in international arbitration, direct witness testimony is usually offered by witness statement and that's written witness statement. And what that means is that the witness will tell their story through a written document that has been prepared with the help of lawyers. There's a trend in occasion for some of these witness statements to be written entirely by the legal team and then signed off by the witness that can be a mistake because oftentimes it doesn't present the witness in a manner that allows the witness to seem very authentic or seem like they're offering their true factual story. Typically, the way that we like to do things is we like to interview the witness, hear their story, prepare them in at least from the US perspective in a way that we might prepare a witness for direct examination and then put their witness statement down on paper and then have them sign off on that. That's usually the way it's done in the US I should mention, I'm qualified in England and Wales as well. So we can have issues occasionally with how we prepare witnesses and the differences between the two systems. But I think that's usually the way most people would do it from a general perspective. Now, what that also means is that cross therefore becomes the first opportunity for the tribunal to really hear from the witness themselves and to assess the witness. So it's one thing and I've noticed this sitting in as arbitrator, it's one thing to read a witness statement and to get a sense of what you might think the witness is, it's a very different experience. When you then see that witness hear from them live, see their mannerisms, hear their words coming directly from their mouth, with their own timber, their own tenor and their own delivery. So cross really takes on a disproportionate value and importance in

In this edition of ‘Spotlight on…’, Gautam Bhattacharyya is joined by Sudhir Mishra, founder and managing partner of Trust Legal, New Delhi, and one of India’s top environmental lawyers. Together, they dive into Sudhir’s professional journey and the figures he regards as his mentors. The conversation then turns to the changing terrains of environmental arbitration, the contrasts between this and commercial arbitration, and Sudhir’s hopes for the role of dispute resolution in environmental matters.
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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 Arbitral Insights podcast series. And I'm delighted today to have as our guest, Sudhir Mishra, the managing partner of Trust Legal in New Delhi. Hello, Sudhir.
Sudhir: Good afternoon Gautam. Very grateful for this opportunity and I really look forward to discussing with you.
Gautam: Well, it's wonderful to have you and I'm delighted that you accepted our invitation to be on this podcast. I've been wanting to do a podcast with you for a long time and for many reasons. But there's one major reason and that is that you amongst other things, have a great reputation and specialism in environmental law and you are very well regarded and rightly so well regarded. One of the foremost experts on Indian environmental law and you have a great affinity for this area. And I, and in the course of this discussion today, I would like to uh engage with you in a discussion around how arbitration and environmental law meet and what the future is for the resolution of environmental law disputes by arbitration. And we'll talk about that and about a number of other things. But before I do all of that about environmental law, just a quick few words about you, for our listeners. For those of our listeners who don't know you or haven't come across you before. Sudhir, apart from being a wonderful person, and I must say that is his greatest attribute in my view. He's a wonderful human being. He's also a wonderful lawyer and his firm Trust Legal uh has a number of very, very good specialisms uh including dispute resolution of many kinds, but also environmental law. And one thing that we're not going to talk about in this podcast with regret is that also it's a very well regarded firm in the area of media and entertainment law. But uh but we are going to be focusing on some other areas today with Sudhir because in fact, I could do a whole series of podcasts with Sudhir. We, we could do the Sudhir Mishra podcast series. Such is the range of issues which he could talk about, but Sudhir set up Trust Legal many years ago and it's now rightly a very well respected firm in India and Sudhir, as I mentioned, is an expert amongst other things in environmental law. Uh So it really is wonderful to have you with us on this podcast. Sudhir. Let me, first of all, ask you a little bit about your background if you could tell our listeners because it's always interesting to, to know how things began because things always begin from somewhere. And I know a lot about you myself, but I want the listeners to know a little bit about your backstory. So a little bit about your background and how you found the law or indeed, how the law found you. So I'll hand over to you Sudhir.
Sudhir: So Gautam, thanks again. And while you are the toast of this entire country in India, because of what you have achieved in last many decades, and more specifically in last 3 to 4 months with regard to the large public sect

Distinguished Malaysian lawyer and full-time international arbitrator Sitpah Selvaratnam is our guest for this episode of ‘Spotlight on …’ Host Gautam Bhattacharyya takes us on a journey through Sitpah’s remarkable career, discussing the focus of her practice and the attributes she believes are necessary for anyone aspiring to become an arbitrator. The conversation then explores diversity, equity, and inclusion within the legal profession – pertinent given Sitpah’s role as co-chair of the Asia Pacific chapter of the Equal Representation in Arbitration pledge. 
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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 and welcome back to our Arbitral Insights podcast series. And I'm delighted that in this edition we have as our guest, Sitpah Selvaratnam. Hello, Sitpah. 
Sitpah: Hi Gautam. Thank you for having me on your podcast. I'm delighted to be here. 
Gautam: Well, I'm delighted that you're on this podcast. I've been wanting to do a podcast with you for a long, long time and it's, it's wonderful that we've got this opportunity and I know that our listeners will thoroughly enjoy your thoughts and discussions on the points that we're going to be talking about. Now, I will first will introduce you because some of our listeners may not be familiar with you, but you are put it this way, a real force of nature and you are an incredibly impressive lawyer and arbitrator. So um I, I could actually spend the whole half hour talking about your antecedents, but I will have to keep this uh summary short about your profile. So, Sitpah is one of the leading lawyers in Malaysia. Um She's been practicing there for over 30 years. She was called to the Malaysian Bar in 1990 having studied over here in the UK. Yeah, and I'm sure we'll come back to that Sitpah over the course of our discussion, and she, she commenced her practice in Malaysia at one of the largest firms in Malaysia and then was a founding partner of the very excellent firm of Tommy Thomas, uh where she recently has just left. So she's just left that firm to set up practice as a full time arbitrator. And we'll be discussing that in the course of this podcast. Sit is a very highly ranked lawyer in a number of areas amongst other things. Apart from her commercial practice, she has a very, very well regarded maritime practice and that has always been one of her big specialisms as well as commercial arbitration and litigation. So it's a real honor to be doing this podcast with you Sitpah and I'm really looking forward to our discussions today. 
Sitpah: Gautam, you are just too kind. It's so lovely to be here chatting with you. So I hope this is of interest to your listeners. 
Gautam: It will undoubtedly be. And I, I want to start with this question, what drew you to law as a career in the first place right now? 
Sitpah: So it was accidental, as much as it was a process of elimination. I come from a rather conservative family out here in Malaysia, of Sri Lankan descent. And so my father was only about to fund my education in the UK if I did a profession. And so the law and being a lawyer seemed least worse. And that's how I ended up in, in Cardiff reading law and then in Cambridge to do my master's and the rest is history. 
Gautam: Well, thank goodness you chose the law because you made good history in the course of everything. So, you know, so, yeah, so you studied in, uh uh in Cardiff and in Cambridge. So tell us your thoughts about your time over here? 
Sitpah: Oh, I, it, it still s

This International Women’s Day (IWD), London counsel Lucy Winnington-Ingram hosts women arbitration practitioners across Reed Smith’s global platform: Elizabeth Farrell (London), Rebeca Mosquera (New York), Juliya Arbisman (New York), Vanessa Thieffry (Paris) and Alison Eslick (Dubai) for a Q&A session exploring what this year’s IWD theme means to them.
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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. Welcome to our Women in Arbitration podcast mini series, a platform for women's voices across the global international arbitration community. I'm Lucy Winnington-Ingram, an international arbitration lawyer based in Reed Smith's London office. In these episodes, we will hear from leading women in the international arbitration space and discuss industry news, trends, developments, and matters of interest. And with that, let's get started. 
Lucy: Hello, I'm Lucy Winnington-Ingram, council at Reed Smith with a practice that focuses on investor-state arbitration and public international law. This International Women's Day, I'm delighted to be joined by women arbitration practitioners across Reed Smith's global platform to discuss this year's International Women's Day theme, Inspire Inclusion. Inspire Inclusion, focuses on encouraging others to understand and value women's inclusion. And when women themselves are inspired to be included, there's a sense of belonging, relevance and empowerment. I'll be joined by Elizabeth Farrell, Rebeca Mosquera, Juliya Arbisman, Vanessa Theiffry and Alison Eslick to hear their views on diversity, equity and inclusion in the legal profession as it pertains to women, and who has been a mentor in their careers that embodies the Inspire Inclusion theme. And my first guest on today's podcast is Elizabeth Farrell. Elizabeth is a partner in our Energy and Natural Resources Group in London. And Elizabeth's practice focuses on international arbitration in the commodities and energy sector. Hello, Elizabeth, how are you today? 
Elizabeth: Hi, Lucy. I'm very well, indeed. It’s a pleasure to be speaking with you. 
Lucy: Well, thank you so much for joining us. So my question for you Elizabeth is what advice would you give to young women entering the legal profession? 
Elizabeth: Big question. I mean, firstly, it's a wonderful career. Just say that, I mean, it is full of endless variety and potential. So anybody considering a career in the law, I think you're on the right track. I'd also say I can only speak to this really from the perspective of somebody in an international law firm um in London specifically. And I'd say in many ways, that kind of environment is about as progressive as you can get in a modern workplace. Um full of incredibly supportive role models and leaders who want you to achieve your potential. But uh there's still you know, a significant gender disparity in senior roles. So I would say first piece of advice is stand on the shoulders of the women who have come before us and seize every opportunity that comes to you, try to see that opportunity as a privilege and know that undoubtedly, although we work incredibly hard, the harder you work, especially earlier on in the in your career, the more luck you you create for yourself, the more opportunities will come your way. And if you invest in it, your career will always be there for you, whatever else happens in your life. And so that, that hard graft in the early years, you know, really pays off. 
Lucy: Thanks Elizabeth. And I, I mean, I have to agree. I've been incredibly lucky in my career to h