36 IN CONVERSATION WITH LOUISE BARRINGTON
A RB I T R A LWOMEN : CEL EBR AT ING T WO DEC A DE S OF WOMEN IN A RB I T R AT I ON ALEC ArbitralWomen has enjoyed considerable growth in numbers and profile and recently celebrated its 20th anniversary. Tell me about how the ideawas conceived. I hear that youwere verymuch involved in setting it up. LOUI SE Yes. I think people givememore credit than is due because I was there first. The ideawas born as a result of my very first ICCA conference, in Bahrain, in 1993. There were around 225 people there and a total of 24 people speaking, with one (token) womanwho was a professor there. There were also very fewwomen attending the conference – it was a sea of grey suits. On about the second or third day, I was standing by the coffee table withmaybe seven or eight other women, almost all those attending the conference. We started to talk about why there were so fewwomen at the conference. During the conversation people said that it would be interesting to find out where the women are andwhy they aren’t here. Before leaving Bahrain, we all exchanged addresses and I arranged a dinner for later in the year. The dinner was surprisingly successful with over 60women in attendance. We actually had to change venue at the last minute due to demand, as the first place we had booked only had space for 40 people. The energy in the roomwas amazing. Out of that original dinner came the idea to studywomen in arbitration so I devised a questionnaire. Vera Van Houtte, who was already very established at that time, helpedme to design it. Wemade it very detailed, asking womenwho were active in arbitration how they got into it, how successful they felt, their background, their family situation andwhat languages they spoke. Eachwoman referred a few others, who in turn sent in other names, like a chain letter. I received over 80 responses, whichwas fantastic as I didn’t know there were 80women doing arbitration at the time. The group began informally as an ad hoc network and Yahoo! chat roomand it grew from that into something a little bit more thanwe imagined.
ALEC That’s quite an interesting point. What do you think about the numbers of people who are studying arbitration at law school andmooting and so on? LOUI SE I think it’s a double edged sword. Arbitration has become a very sexy thing to study. Whenwe were at school we didn’t have arbitration so I learned about it in France when I was doingmyMasters work there. It certainlywasn’t on my undergraduate syllabus. Now of course it’s offered as an elective at a lot of schools at the undergraduate level which is all verywell except that I think students are thinking that arbitration itself is a specialty, when really arbitration is nothing more than a procedural specialty. A student who goes into arbitration thinking, “I want to do arbitration and nothing else”, doesn’t seem to realise that that’s tantamount to saying “I don’t knowanything at all but I’d like to be able to judge it!” And so on one hand you’ve got these people who are really good at procedure and they understand the law of arbitration but whether theywill ever be able to find jobs as arbitrators is very doubtful unless they also have some other specialty, whether it be international tax, or international finance or banking or insurance or construction. Where do arbitrations occur most often? Those are the areas where students should be specialising. ALEC Yes, it’s quite interesting, especiallywhen you think that in big law firms arbitration groups have been developed over probably not muchmore than 30 years. Although Clyde&Co has a Global Arbitration Group, comprising a core of arbitration specialists, we are also sector-focussed in our approach owing to our strong heritage in the shipping, insurance and international trade sectors. We also have a global construction groupwhich specialises in substantial construction arbitrations. This structure gives our trainees and associates the best of bothworlds, as they have the opportunity to learn fromboth arbitration specialists and lawyers with in depth knowledge of particular industries. LOUI SE You are absolutely right. I think that students and young lawyers who go into arbitration for the sake of arbitration are probablymaking a bigmistake. They could be lucky and get great experience and exposure on one or more high-profile cases but that is not everyone’s experience.
Ideally, what arbitration needs is lawyers that understand their clients’ businesses because they have worked in the relevant area for several years andwho canwork together with arbitration specialists who possess inside-out knowledge of the procedure. Somy concern is that law schools are taking advantage of regional interest in arbitration because it is attractive to students. Travel in business or first class, luxury hotels and all those sophisticated cocktail parties. It sounds great but they need to have something in their heads to offer. I came from the ICCwhere I learned about process in the context of commercial international lawbut I still feel that most of mywork has come about because I have a background in construction law and have worked in a construction firmand now, of course, have several construction-related cases behindme. The CISG expertise from long years with the VisMoot doesn’t hurt either! ALEC I agree withwhat you say about arbitration needing both industry and procedural specialists. For quite a number of years I refused to accept appointments as an arbitrator on construction disputes because I’d never been a construction lawyer. Then one evening, the co-head of our construction group inMENA and I were having a drink and he questionedwhy I wouldn’t accept construction appointments. His response to my answer was “Why do you think theywant a construction lawyer to chair a tribunal, theywant somebodywho can run andmanage the process, and anyway you’ve done shipbuilding and rig building disputes for years”. This changed my opinion and I do quite a few construction arbitrations now. LOUI SE I can completely understand that youwere able to get construction appointments after establishing your career in other sectors. My point is that students who are fresh from study are not going to get into arbitration directly because who wants a 24 year old arbitrator with no practical industry experience? Theywill be lucky to findwork in firms that do arbitration as a substantial part of their work.
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