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 19th 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.