London may recently have lost ground to Singapore, but practitioners insist it still plays a pivotal role in the world of arbitration.
‘London continues to be a tremendous success story,’ says Herbert Smith Freehills partner Craig Tevendale. ‘It remains one of the most frequently chosen seats of arbitration and, in the global context, is probably still the most popular arbitral seat of all. London is the most frequently selected seat for both LCIA and ICC institutional arbitration and is also a thriving ad hoc seat - with upwards of 1,700 new ad hoc cases commenced under London Maritime Arbitrators Association Terms alone in 2020.
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Whilst the world has been physically isolating thanks to the pandemic, lockdown has triggered a sharp increase in online knowledge sharing. I was honoured to speak at such an event recently: the ICC’s Arbitration Day ‘in’ Prague. The discussion centred on technology in arbitration, and I was fortunate to be in the esteemed company of senior representatives from Deloitte, Airbus and Sidley Austin LLP.
Everyone – fortunately for the moderator – agreed that technology was a good thing. However, we diverged somewhat on its current adoption and future uptake. It’s true that we must walk before we run. Using simple tools like Excel and hyperlinks definitely augment manual workflows. Those tools are also a way to realise the small wins technology offers.