ArbitralWomen member Rekha Rangachari, Executive Director of the New York International Arbitration Center (NYIAC), recently published an article titled, “Necessary Change: Planning Past Bias Through the ArbitralWomen Diversity Toolkit™” that appeared in the Spring 2020 issue of the NYSBA New York Dispute Resolution Lawyer. Rekha Rangachari is well-positioned to write about the ArbitralWomen Diversity Toolkit™ given her role on the ArbitralWomen Diversity Toolkit™ Committee and her personal experience in delivering ArbitralWomen Diversity Toolkit™ training programs. Additionally, she was instrumental in organising and ArbitralWomen’s full-day conference in New York titled “The Diversity Dividend: Moving from Bias to Inclusiveness in International Arbitration” on 8 November 2018 at which the ArbitralWomen Diversity Toolkit™ was formally launched. This celebratory event was generously hosted by the American Arbitration Association-International Center for Dispute Resolution (AAA-ICDR) at its midtown New York headquarters. She also led a panel session at the conference. The ArbitralWomen Diversity Toolkit™ focuses on recognising unconscious biases and how attitudes, experience, and education build these internally in the brain. Time is spent exploring how unconscious biases interfere with rational decision-making, with exercises and focused discussions encouraging participants to step away from their comfort zone and confront such biases live. The ArbitralWomen Diversity Toolkit™ underscores the research-driven data that diverse groups make better decisions, foster creativity and better management, recognised by many as important for any company’s financial bottom line.As described in the article by Rekha Rangachari, the ArbitralWomen Diversity Toolkit™ is a full-day training session. ArbitalWomen certified trainers offer a multi-media participatory experience including video clips, mini-lectures, and guided small group sessions. Participants are asked in advance to take at least two implicit association tests from Harvard’s “Project Implicit” to better understand how conscious and unconscious biases operate on a personal level, with suggested reading to bring relevant topics, theories, and statistics to the main stage. During the live segments of the ArbitralWomen Diversity Toolkit™ training programme, participants dive into the empirical metrics, underscoring that what can be measured can be changed. The training program culminates in brainstorming sessions to create individual strategy lists targeting goals and specific actions to achieve progress. The research and work behind the development of the ArbitralWomen Diversity Toolkit™ was made possible thanks to a generous grant from the AAA-ICDR Foundation, a non-profit organisation chaired by ArbitralWomen member Edna Sussman. More information about the ArbitralWomen Diversity Toolkit™ can be found here. The article by Rekha Rangachari on the ArbitralWomen Diversity Toolkit™ can be accessed here if you are a NYSBA member. Submitted by Dana MacGrath, ArbitralWomen President and Investment Manager, Legal Counsel at Omni Bridgeway

Do you want to know how ArbitralWomen was founded and learn about its achievements? Read the inspiring article by ArbitralWomen Co-Founder Mirèze Philippe on “WALK THE TALK” regarding gender diversity issues, why she and Louise Barrington, JD, LLM, FCIArb founded ArbitralWomen (AW) and what AW has achieved in the past 26 years. https://lnkd.in/dEaWiaC The good work of ArbitralWomen is continuing under the leadership of Dana MacGrath and also thanks to all friends and colleagues who strive for gender parity, said Mirèze. ArbitralWomen succeeded to come so far thanks to the invaluable work of all Board Members who have served on the Board and those who continue serving and all members who started initiatives supported by ArbitralWomen. Efforts are also required for in-person events as well as on webinars. ArbitralWomen has published a statement on “Diversity is Equally Important for Virtual Events and welcomes all groups and individuals who support diversity to share, post, and/or re-tweet the text of this message in any form you wish! I hope that efforts by the business and legal communities will soon be significant and visible, said Mirèze.

It is wonderful that during this period of social distancing, webinars and other online programming bring members of our international dispute resolution community together to share knowledge and connect virtually. We encourage organisers of such virtual events, as well as speakers invited to participate, to please keep diversity front of mind and strive to organise events that represent a diverse cross-section of our community, consistent with recent efforts to ensure diversity at in-person events. We welcome all groups and individuals who support diversity to share, post, and/or re-tweet the text of this message in any form you wish! Thank you!

breaking.through, an initiative founded and led by ArbitralWomen member Nadja Harraschain, has expanded its scope to Switzerland and launched a new webpage. Under the slogan "Hast Du Dein Vorbild schon gefunden?" ("Have you already found your role model?"), the breaking.through platform showcases successful women working in a variety of different fields: what they have in common is that each has a legal background. The interviews aim to inspire the next generation of male and female practitioners by shining a spotlight on German, Swiss and international role models. Founder Nadja Harraschain commented as follows:

“Since breaking.through was founded two years ago, we have received tremendous feedback and support from our community, ranging from highly qualified and renowned experts in the legal field who wish to contribute to the success of younger female colleagues to students and legal trainees who just begin to realize that issues of equality are still existent. Today, we are thrilled to expand our sources for inspiration to Switzerland with a webpage of its own. We are extremely thankful for the enormous support we received in many different ways from our community, which has made this growth possible.”

Interview subjects to date include ArbitralWomen co-founder Louise Barrington and members Petra Butler, Katrin Hanschitz, Emily Hay, Lucia Raimanova and Ingeborg Schwenzer. Further interviews with ArbitralWomen members Antje Baumann, Ulrike Gantenberg and Dorothee Ruckteschler are available here. The website is published in German with a number of the interviews available in English. New interviews will be published on the website and via the breaking.through LinkedIn page. Forthcoming interview subjects include ArbitralWomen members Anya George and Olga Hamama. In addition to conducting interviews with female role models, breaking.through organises events and provides opportunities for those in need of advice to seek confidential assistance from role models. Many congratulations to Nadja Harraschain and her team on the expansion of this initiative! Submitted by Amanda Lee, ArbitralWomen Board Member and Consultant at Seymours, London

The Court of the American Chamber of Commerce of Peru’s International Arbitration Centre, at the most recent meeting of its members, held virtually in March 2020, unanimously agreed to incorporate into its list of arbitrators 50 additional women: 15 Peruvian and 35 from other jurisdictions. ArbitralWomen applauds AmCham Peru for this development and congratulates AmCham Peru for becoming the first arbitral institution in Latin America with a female majority among the members of its Court of Arbitration (previously reported by ArbitralWomen here), for AmCham Peru’s substantial increase in the number of women on its roster of arbitrators and for its nomination for the 2020 GAR Pledge Award. Submitted by ArbitralWomen Board Member Maria Beatriz Burghetto, independent lawyer and arbitrator, Paris, France

There were several ground-breaking ‘firsts’ for the 2020 Vis East Moot. It was the first virtual moot competition – the Vis East Moot was rebranded as the Virtual Vis East and quickly referred to as the ‘VVE’ among teams and arbitrators this year. It was an innovative large scale online international arbitration moot competition – the first of its kind. Another first – and one that will be equally celebrated by many who champion women and diversity in international dispute resolution – is that the three members of the arbitral tribunal that presided over the final argument in the Virtual Vis East competition were ALL WOMEN. The arbitral tribunal was chaired by LCIA Court President and arbitrator Paula Hodges QC of Herbert Smith Freehills. The co-arbitrators were Sabine Stricker-Keller, who founded the first European law office in China, and Winnie Tam SC of Des Voeux Chambers in Hong Kong. All three arbitrators participated from their respective homes via the VVE online platform. The VVE finals began and ended with comments from Hong Kong’s Secretary of Justice Teresa Cheng SC, transmitted live from her home via the VVE online platform. For many years, ArbitralWomen co-founder and leading arbitrator Louise Barrington has led the organisation of the Vis East Moot that usually takes place in-person in Hong Kong. Louise Barrington runs the Vis East Moot together with Alix Povey and Maricel Somerville. This year, the 17th Vis East and first Virtual Vis Moot was a phenomenal success involving more than 70 teams and approximately 250 arbitrators participating from all over the globe via the VVE online platform. The Chinese University of Hong Kong emerged victorious with the Eric Bergsten Award, with second place going to the University of São Paulo Largo San Francisco. The organising team was assisted by expert IT volunteers from eBRAM, a Hong Kong start-up that is developing an online dispute resolution platform to support business-to-business transactions in the APEC region. They used Microsoft Teams as the VVE online platform for more than 150 online moot hearings held over the past week. Each individual hearing was monitored by a host manager who assisted the arbitrators and teams, as many were using the platform for the very first time. Louise Barrington described the move to a totally virtual platform as requiring “a huge leap of faith” from teams and arbitrators – but she was determined to make it work, given that the only alternative was to cancel the moot and disappoint hundreds of students who had been working for months to prepare for the competition. The organisers of the VVE are thrilled with its success and proud to have achieved this important ‘first’ in international arbitration. “Thanks to the Virtual Vis East, there are now hundreds more who are capable of running an online hearing and confident enough to do it in real life,” commented Louise Barrington. The implications of this achievement are amazing. Congratulations and thanks to all involved in making this history-making virtual moot competition possible. Meanwhile, stay tuned to find out if the 17th Vis East Moot will convene for in-person hearings in late 2020 and if so, the scope of that in-person Vis Moot competition. Submitted by Dana MacGrath, ArbitralWomen President and Investment Manager and Legal Counsel at Omni Bridgeway