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Sponsored foreword: expect the unexpected – 2022 and beyond

Clive Zietman

It hardly seems a year ago that I was writing a commentary on the state of the UK disputes market and predicting that the only certain thing about the landscape was its unpredictability. At that time, I assumed that vaccines would be the panacea for Covid and that the whole rotten ordeal would be over by now. Furthermore, I felt that the fallout would quickly become obvious. I was wrong in making those assumptions. That said, by reading a combination of the tea leaves and observing the market, I do think it is possible to detect some discernible trends for the near future. Continue reading “Sponsored foreword: expect the unexpected – 2022 and beyond”

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Disputes perspectives: Sue Millar

I was always naturally argumentative. But I didn’t have any role model at all, nobody that I knew was involved in law.

I was either going to be a journalist or a lawyer. What swayed me? I grew up in the 1980s and you start to get politically awakened in your teens. This was at a time when Margaret Thatcher was in government and everything was extremely political. I realised that I would probably have to write in accordance with the political wishes of the editor and I didn’t think I could do that. Continue reading “Disputes perspectives: Sue Millar”

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Disputes perspectives: Bankim Thanki QC

My father had been a lawyer in India and East Africa but wasn’t keen on me becoming a lawyer. It’s a bit of a standing joke but it’s true – every Indian parent wants their kid to become a doctor, whether or not you have any skillset in that direction! My dad was dead against the Bar in particular because it didn’t have a regular income attached. There was no family encouragement whatsoever. Continue reading “Disputes perspectives: Bankim Thanki QC”

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Boies Don’t Cry

‘What would you do if you weren’t afraid? When I’m making big decisions, there’s always fear attached. I try to put the fear aside and say: “What would I do if not afraid?” Last year when Natasha Harrison still ran Boies Schiller Flexner’s (BSF) London office, she revealed her mantra in conversation with Legal Business. When news broke in January that she and the majority of her disputes team were leaving BSF to start a new litigation-only firm, Pallas Partners, such thinking must have been at the front of her mind. Continue reading “Boies Don’t Cry”

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More seats at the table

‘There was a point where centres in Africa, Asia and other parts of the world started saying, “hang on, we have lots of parties from this region doing international arbitration but they’re all going to London, Paris, Geneva – we should have some of it here”,’ recalls Herbert Smith Freehills London-based global arbitration partner and president of the London Court of International Arbitration (LCIA), Paula Hodges QC. Continue reading “More seats at the table”