Introduction

It is with great pleasure that we welcome you to the sixth edition of Global Arbitration Review’s The Guide to Advocacy. Each edition offers the opportunity to explore new aspects of the advocate’s role in international arbitration – from the artistry of oral and written advocacy to the expertise of regional or sector-specific arbitration to the guile of a master strategist. With this sixth edition, we are pleased to offer our esteemed readers new perspectives on second-chairing an oral argument and on cultural considerations in India.

The sixth edition carries the honour of being this publication’s first edition to be released in a fully post-covid era. The pandemic forced arbitration practitioners to explore new ways of pursuing the administration of justice, adopting tools of technology that have been available for some time, but ill-exploited for a multitude of reasons. By no means have old methods become obsolete. However, there can be no doubt that the virtual era of arbitration has left its mark.

This is apparent in the technological trappings that can be expected in any arbitration. Remote hearings, paperless filings and virtual bundles are now a common feature of any arbitration and are here to stay for good. That is not without its effect on how the arbitration advocate approaches his or her task – whether that may be the significant challenges of cross-examining a witness remotely or using the benefits of technology to produce a more compelling written brief. Arbitration practitioners have had to adapt their advocacy to these exciting new conditions – as the sixth edition’s authors explain.

However, that is not all. The post-covid world has given new voice to practitioners in jurisdictions and sectors beyond those historically favoured by arbitration. This edition seeks to give those practitioners an opportunity to explain to the rest of us the unique tasks of an arbitration advocate as well as the aspects that are common to virtually all jurisdictions and sectors.

Advocacy in arbitration covers a limitless array of concepts, skills and viewpoints. It is, no doubt, the art of persuasion: the capacity to transcend legal, cultural, contextual, linguistic and technological barriers to secure a favourable outcome for one’s client. It is the arrows in the advocate’s quiver that allow him or her to marshal evidence and present it in such a way that it guides the arbitrators’ decision-making – the power of trenchant and tactful prose, a compelling opening presentation, the artfulness of a line of questioning in cross-examination, and the ability to transcend distance and physical barriers to draw the decision maker into one’s argument. But advocacy in arbitration is also the art of strategy: the ability to craft a case theory from a boundless set of facts and an exotic applicable law, the adroitness to tailor the arbitral process to suit one’s strategy. The Guide to Advocacy seeks to pull together the diverse strands of arbitral advocacy in one compendium and offer the reader the views of some of the most renowned practitioners in the field.

As you pore over the pages of this Guide, leading arbitration practitioners will invite you into their breakout room and offer you their thoughts on advocacy through each step of the arbitral process. They will share with you their meditations on how to forge a robust case strategy, execute eloquent written advocacy, conduct effective direct and cross-examination, act as an indispensable resource for the first chair in a hearing, deliver persuasive opening and closing presentations, and much more.

Notes