News & Events

July – December 2025

The second half of 2025 continued to be an active period for LKDR, with Meg and Lucinda participating in a wide range of professional activities and conferences around the world. The months from July through December featured discussions on integrity in arbitration, the evolution of investment law, mentorship, and the continuing legacy of NAFTA.

In September, Meg spoke at the 24th International Arbitration Conference hosted by the Brazilian Arbitration Committee (CBAr) in Rio de Janeiro. The conference theme, “Integrity and Arbitration,” provided the backdrop for her remarks on the scrutiny of awards and review mechanisms, key safeguards to ensure fairness and transparency in arbitral decision-making.

October was a particularly busy month. Meg returned to Rio de Janeiro for the AIEN/ICC Conference on Dispute Resolution in the International Energy Business, where she delivered two presentations. The first traced the evolution of energy-related disputes at ICSID, from traditional energy contracts to more recent cases involving renewable energy. The second addressed the treatment of taxation under investment law, noting the increasing inclusion of “tax carve-outs” in investment treaties to preserve states’ sovereign taxing authority.

Lucinda opened the month as the keynote speaker at the Atlanta Arbitration Society’s 8th Annual Conference, where she delivered an address on “The Elusive Concept of Mandatory Law in International Arbitration”, offering reflections on how this evolving topic continues to shape arbitral practice, particularly in international commercial arbitration.

Back in Washington, both Meg and Lucinda participated in Washington Arbitration Week (WAW). Meg spoke on a panel focused on how to foster a culture of mentorship in international arbitration, while Lucinda took part in a panel entitled “Annulment of ICSID (and non-ICSID) Awards in the U.S. as Well as Aspects of Their Enforcement,” examining recent developments in annulment and enforcement proceedings before U.S. courts.

Meg then spoke at the ICC Canada Annual Conference in Ottawa, joining a panel examining Canada’s experience under NAFTA’s investment chapter. Over the life of the treaty, Canada faced 44 arbitrations, many of which have significantly influenced modern ISDS jurisprudence. 

She will next address the ICC México Investment Arbitration Committee on “NAFTA Under the Upcoming Review of the USMCA,” offering reflections on lessons learned from Canada’s experience under NAFTA and the implications for ongoing treaty review and reform.

Lucinda and Meg will reunite later in the month at International Law Weekend 2025 in New York, serving as keynote interviewees in a conversation moderated by ASIL President Melida Hodgson. Under the theme “Crisis as Catalyst,” they will discuss how arbitration has adapted to global change and how institutions and practitioners can continue driving reform.

In November, Meg will participate in Dubai Arbitration Week as part of a panel hosted by Al Tamimi & Co., CEDR, and ADGM on “Investor-State Mediation: Has Its Time Come?”. The session will address the increasing role of mediation in ISDS and the implementation of the ICSID Mediation Rules. Later that month, she will deliver the Freshfields Lecture in London on “The Legacy of NAFTA Chapter 11,” examining the agreement’s enduring influence on investment treaty drafting and investor–state dispute settlement practice.

Lucinda’s engagements in November and December will be equally active. She will participate in the fall meeting of the ICC Commission on Arbitration and ADR in Toronto, continuing her work as a member of the Commission and with the Task Force on Dealing with Allegations of Corruption in International Arbitration. She will speak at the CAM AMCHAM 8th Arbitration Conference in São Paulo on “Arbitration and Corporate Reputation” (Arbitragem e Reputação Corporativa), and at Dublin International Arbitration Day on “Key Developments in International Arbitration.” She will conclude the year in Miami, where she will speak at HardTalk Miami on “Corruption in Arbitration: Tackling Fraud and Bribery in Latin America’s Commercial Landscape.”

As 2026 begins, LKDR looks ahead to another year of hearings, awards, and continued engagement with colleagues and institutions advancing the practice of international arbitration.

April – June 2025

The second quarter of 2025 saw LKDR’s business continue to grow with hearings, new appointments, and the issuance of orders, decisions and awards. In addition, professional activities took Lucinda and Meg to various locales around the globe to meet colleagues and friends and discuss current issues in international arbitration. 

The most fun of these activities was a joint presentation at the Annual Meeting of the Institute for Transnational Arbitration (ITA) in Houston in June.  Meg was asked to interview Lucinda as part of the oral histories project of the Academic Council of the ITA, a project that records the evolution of international arbitration through interviews with leading figures in the field.   Meg herself was interviewed as part of this project in 2023.   Of course, we touched on the formation of LKDR as a key milestone in Lucinda’s career.   Lucinda’s interview, along with the other interviews that are part of this project, are available on the ITA website.

On March 21, 2025, Meg gave a keynote address to the Georgetown International Arbitration Society celebrating International Women’s Day. Meg made another presentation the following week addressing the link between international investment law and the rule of law at the University of Pittsburgh School of Law.

Meg was named to a five-year term as a member of the Court of the London Court of International Arbitration (LCIA) in May 2025. The Court promotes the objectives of the LCIA and of international commercial arbitration generally.

On June 5, 2025, the International Council for Commercial Arbitration (ICCA) and the Kigali International Arbitration Centre (KIAC) hosted a one-day conference in Kigali. Meg was a co-Chair of the program committee, which organized four panels on the present and future of international arbitration in Africa and a keynote by Dr. Emmanuel Ugirashebuja, the Attorney General and Minister of Justice of Rwanda. The theme of the conference was “Africa & International Arbitration: Untold Stories”.  

Lucinda made her way up to New York from DC on the Amtrak several times this spring, first to speak at the ABA Section of International Law’s Annual Meeting on a panel discussing ISDS reform, and second to speak at a meeting of the New York Chapter of the Institute of Chartered Arbitrators on the elusive topic of mandatory law.   She also spoke at an event organized by the ICC’s New York office on the recently published “red flags” document of the ICC Commission’s Task Force on Dealing with Allegations of Corruption in International Arbitration and participated (remotely) at an ICC Sweden event on the same topic.  

Lucinda was particularly pleased to be back in Brazil in May for the 19^th Rio de Janeiro International Arbitration Conference, on the theme of “Silence and International Arbitration”.   Lucinda spoke on a panel with representatives of the ICC and PCA on “Silence in the Arbitration Rules”.   While there, she also had the opportunity to attend a moving and excellent event in Rio honoring the memory and legacy of Emmanuel Gaillard.   

Lucinda continues to participate in the work of the ICC Commission on Arbitration and ADR and was in Paris for the Spring Meeting of that Commission, and Paris Arbitration Week.  

Looking ahead, Q3 brings something of a respite from arbitration events, at least until September, but not from hearings and case work.

January – March 2025

In November 2024, the ICC Bulletin published a document reflecting the work of Track 3 of the ICC’s Task Force on Dealing with Allegations of Corruption in International Arbitration.  Lucinda is a member of the Task Force and one of the Coordinators of Track 3.   The document is the first published output of the Task Force, which began its work in 2020. It provides an innovative approach to addressing corruption allegations in arbitration through a three-step methodology for evaluating potential or asserted red flags. The full document is available in Issue 2 of the 2024 ICC Dispute Resolution Bulletin. The document was the subject of an event held in Stockholm on March 10, organized by ICC Stockholm, at which Lucinda and two of the other Track 3 Coordinators spoke. 

In December 2024, both Meg and Lucinda were pleased to participate in different panels organized during Washington Arbitration Week (WAW).   Lucinda spoke at an ICSID-sponsored panel entitled “Inside the Arbitrators’ Chambers: Best Practices of Arbitrators in ICSID Proceedings”, while Meg moderated a session on enforcement of international investment and commercial arbitration awards.  Lucinda was also the recipient of WAW’s Lifetime Achievement Award, which was conferred at a reception held at ICSID’s headquarters on December 5.   Her acceptance speech will be published by the WAW organizers.

Lucinda also spoke at a webinar organized by the ICC Institute on World Business Law’s SME Lab on Compliance in December 2024. She addressed Practical Considerations in Compliance Disputes. This webinar stems from the ongoing work of the ICC to assist small and medium sized enterprises to understand and implement effective compliance programs.

On January 30, 2025, Meg participated in a wide-ranging “armchair interview” by ILA Canada. The interview was moderated by Oonagh E. Fitzgerald, President of ILA Canada, with Svetoslav Ivanov, PhD candidate at McGill University Law School, as discussant. 

Both Meg and Lucinda spoke at the CPR Annual Conference in Miami on February 5, 2025. Meg spoke on a panel discussing bifurcation of proceedings, while Lucinda spoke on a panel addressing Recent Developments in Arbitration in Latin America.

Also in February 2025, Lucinda participated at an ARBinBrief webinar on “Corruption Claims in Commercial Arbitration”. She also participated in a discussion hosted by the Washington Foreign Law Society, entitled “Raising Red Flags: Addressing Claims of Corruption in Arbitration.”

In March 2025, Meg will be the keynote speaker at an event sponsored by the Georgetown International Arbitration Society focusing on mentoring and career development.

In addition to their dispute resolution practices, Lucinda and Meg continue to participate actively in advisory and expert groups on international arbitration. For example, Lucinda has agreed to participate in an Advisory Committee that is being constituted for the AAA/ICDR for Brazil.  Similarly, Meg will continue working with the ICCA Cross-Institutional Task Force which is updating its report on Gender Diversity in Arbitral Appointments and Proceedings. 

October – December 2024

During the week of September 30, Meg visited the Max Planck Institute in Luxembourg.  While there, she gave a lecture on the “Impact of NAFTA Chapter 11”, which will be published in the ICSID Review. NAFTA Chapter 11 inspired substantive and procedural obligations in many subsequent BITs, not to mention attitudes towards issues such as transparency in arbitration.  During her visit, Meg also spoke on reform in investment arbitration and nationality of investors initiating arbitration.

On October 7, Meg was on a jury assessing presentations of the top papers submitted to the 2024 Nappert Essay Prize at McGill University in Montreal, Canada. The topics presented were at the frontiers of our discipline: Sara Nicola D’Sousa spoke on “The Protection of Crypto-Assets in International Investment Law”, Kseniia Soloveva addressed “Instrumentalising Nationality of Natural Persons: Legitimate Strategic Planning versus Abuse of Procedural Rights” and Joseph Ho spoke to “International Investment Treaty Compliance in Canadian Federalism: A Multi-Dimensional Challenge”.

Meg joined a panel on the mediation of investment disputes, on October 22, held on the margins of the Sixth Committee meetings of the United Nations in New York City. Mediation can certainly contribute to the resolution and simplification of many ISDS cases. Disputing parties should note that mediation can occur at any stage of a case, and it might be especially useful at the later stages, for example after a finding of liability. 

On October 24, Meg delivered the 2024 Washington College of Law Annual International Commercial Arbitration Lecture on “Procedural Good Faith in Investment Arbitration – What Is It And What Could It Be?” Procedural good faith is invoked frequently in arbitration and supports the relevant arbitral rules in maintaining a balanced and fair process. 

During November, Meg will be in Rome for UNIDROIT Meetings and the first annual  UNIDROIT Conference (November 5 – 11), speaking on The Complex Interplay between Climate Law and International Investment Law ( November 8 – for more information, see Roma_Tre_UNIDROIT_Annual_Conference-Programme.pdf). 

On November 13, Meg will take part in this year’s ICC World Business Law Annual Conference in Paris.  The conference looks at Res Judicata, Claim Preclusion, Issue Preclusion and Claim Splitting (Res Judicata, Claim Preclusion, Issue Preclusion and Claim Splitting | Events2Go (iccwbo.org)), and Meg will address how ISDS tribunals have applied res judicata. 

Finally, Meg will be the keynote speaker at The Winds of Change: ICSID in the Geopolitical Arena,  a symposium co-hosted by The University of Vienna, ICSID and Herbert Smith Freehills LLP on November 27, 2024 ( for further information see The Winds of Change: ICSID in the Geopolitical Arena | Herbert Smith Freehills | Global law firm).  Much has changed since the first BIT in 1959, and the conference will be a terrific opportunity to consider this evolution and potential directions for the next decades.

Lucinda participated in the September 14 meeting of the ICC Commission on Arbitration and ADR in Mexico City, having been appointed in June to a three-year term on the Commission.   She continues to actively participate in the work of the Task Force on Dealing with Allegations of Corruption in International Arbitration and looks forward to the publication this fall of the Report of Track 3, which she co-chairs (with Abdulhay Sayed, Patrick Baeten and Xavier Andrade) on Red Flags in Arbitration.   While in Mexico City, Lucinda participated in the LCIA’s Tylney Town Hall and certain IBA-related events, and enjoyed social time with USCIB, IBA, ABA and other colleagues and friends from Mexico and around the world. 

October found Lucinda focused on managing her transition out of Steptoe; November will feature the same as well as participation in the ICC Institute on World Business Law in Paris, a program at which she spoke two years ago, where she will meet up with Meg for joint meetings in Paris and London. In December, LKDR will sponsor Washington Arbitration Week, on whose Advisory Board both Lucinda and Meg have been involved from the outset (for further information, see Washington Arbitration Week – 4th Edition – Nov. 27 to Dec. 01 – 2023).  Lucinda will speak on an ICSID-organized panel on December 4 addressing arbitrator best practices to conduct an efficient and cost-effective proceeding.   She will also receive an award at the WAW opening reception that same night.  On December 5, she will participate in an ICC Institute of World Business Law Compliance Disputes Webinar, and on December 16, she will participate in a PLI webinar on trends in the drafting of cross-border arbitration agreements.

Lucinda Low was appointed by the US National Committee to a three-year term as a delegate to the ICC Commission on Arbitration and ADR in June 2024.  In that capacity, and as an active member and track leader of the Commission’s Task Force on “Addressing Issues of Corruption in International Arbitration,” she will attend the Commission meeting on September 14, 2024 in Mexico City, prior to the IBA 2024 Annual Conference.  

The Commercial Dispute Resolution Newsletter recently published an interview with Meg Kinnear, marking her contributions as Secretary-General of ICSID. The article addresses Meg’s career and work at ICSID as well as at the Trade Law Bureau of Canada, concluding that her experience “gives a level of insight into ISDS that few can match.” The full article is available at: Profile: Meg Kinnear stands up for ISDS | Andrew Mizner | CDR Article (cdr-news.com).

Meg will be visiting the Max Planck Institute in Luxembourg between September 30 and October 4, 2024. While there, she will be speaking on several current issues.  This includes a speech about the impact of NAFTA Chapter 11 on modern ISDS. While that agreement has been superseded by the USMCA, it has had a very significant impact on investment jurisprudence and treaty drafting in the past two decades. She will also address the topic of reform of ISDS, and whether it is too little, too much, or just right!