International Arbitration

Expert Analysis

• Judge's Rebuke Of Mass. AG Has Lessons For All Attorneys

  

  A Massachusetts federal judge’s recent rebuke of the state Attorney General’s Office for refusing to respond to discovery requests in Alliance for Automotive Innovation v. Healey highlights six important considerations for attorneys who want to avoid the dreaded benchslap, say Alison Eggers and Dallin Wilson at Seyfarth.  

• Font Considerations To Give Your Legal Briefs An Edge

  

  Following the D.C. Circuit’s recent notice discouraging use of the font Garamond in legal briefs, Jason Steed at Kilpatrick looks at typeface requirements and preferences in appellate courts across the country, and how practitioners can score a few extra brief-writing points with typography.

• Make Profitability Management Part Of Your Law Firm Culture

  

  As the legal industry continues to change in the post-pandemic world, law firms should adapt to client demands by constantly measuring and managing the profitability of their services, says Joseph Altonji at LawVision.

• Rethinking Investment Treaties As Latin America Goes Green

  

  As Latin America pivots toward renewable energy, governments should reshape bilateral investment treaties to allow incentives for new technologies and improve dispute settlement mechanisms, while also providing both new and established energy companies with certainty and fair treatment, say attorneys at GST.

• 4 Trends In Discoverability Of Litigation Funding Documents

  

  Recent rulings shed light on how courts and international arbitration tribunals decide if litigation funding materials are discoverable and reaffirm best practices that attorneys should follow when communicating with funders, say Justin Maleson at Longford Capital and Michele Slachetka and Christian Plummer at Jenner & Block.

• 7 Lessons For Young Lawyers Starting Their Careers

  

  This year's law graduates and other young attorneys must recognize that the practice of law tests and rewards different skills and characteristics than law school, and that what makes a lawyer valuable changes over time, says Vernon Winters, retired partner at Sidley.

• What OECD Scrutiny Means For Anti-Corruption In Brazil

  

  Attorneys at Paul Hastings examine how an unprecedented standing subgroup recently created by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development to monitor Brazil's anti-corruption efforts reflects significant uncertainty regarding the country's commitment to enforcement, and what companies can do to address foreign bribery risk and strengthen compliance programs.

• The Pandemic's Bright Spots For Lawyers Who Are Parents

  

  The COVID-19 crisis has allowed lawyers to hone remote advocacy strategies and effectively represent clients with minimal travel — abilities that have benefited working parents and should be utilized long after the pandemic is over, says Chelsea Loughran at Wolf Greenfield.

• Economic Sanctions And Export Controls: A Q1 Update

  

  Attorneys at Kirkland discuss first-quarter developments in U.S. export controls and economic sanctions and what they may indicate about the Biden administration's national security and foreign policy agenda. 

• Fla. Ruling Muddles Question Of Who Decides Arbitrability

  

  A Florida state appellate court's recent decision in Fallang Family v. PrivCap — that the incorporation of arbitration rules by reference into an arbitration agreement does not grant arbitrators the sole power to decide arbitrability — leaves parties without express delegation clauses with few good options if they are dragged into court over arbitration, says Brian Briz at Holland & Knight.

• Opinion

  Revise Mansfield Diversity Mandates To Also Benefit Veterans

  

  The well-intentioned efforts and salutary purposes of the legal industry's Mansfield Rule diversity metric are tainted by the Diversity Lab initiative's omission of veterans, who are underrepresented at large law firms and entitled to advantageous treatment based on more than 200 years of public policy, says Robert Redmond at McGuireWoods.

• Why The Future Law Firm Model Is Industry-Based Offerings

  

  Multidisciplinary, industry-based groups at law firms allow for more holistic legal advice, lead to sustainable client relationships, and are likely to replace practice group monoliths at many firms, say Jennifer Simpson Carr at Furia Rubel, Timothy Corcoran at Corcoran Consulting and Mike Mellor at Pryor Cashman.

• ICDR Update May Help Arbitration Parties Avoid Litigation

  

  The International Centre for Dispute Resolution's recently updated rules reinforce its authority to decide jurisdiction without court involvement, helping parties to arbitration agreements with clear delegation clauses minimize the risk of litigation, say attorneys at Fox Rothschild.

• Thought Leadership's Critical Role In Law Firm Diversity

  

  Minority attorneys are often underrepresented in conferences, media interviews and other law firm thought leadership campaigns, which affects their visibility with potential clients and their ability to advance at their firms, says John Hellerman at Hellerman Communications.

• UK Ruling Shows Tool For Taming Multijurisdictional Disputes

  

  In PJSC National Bank Trust v. Mints, the U.K. High Court imposed costs on the prevailing party for failure to notify the court of related proceedings, demonstrating an approach that judges may use to mitigate the risk of discordant outcomes in multijurisdictional litigation, say Thomas Grant at Cambridge University and Scott Kieff at George Washington Law School.