It was great to join forces with the ladies at Korda Mentha and Sitpah Selvaratnam for the latest instalment in the Damages and Expert Training Workshop series. This time we hosted a training on best practices for using experts in international arbitrations.

The speakers were:

👩 Sally Davitt

👩 Catherine Lee

👩 Poppy Potter

👩 Sitpah Selvaratnam

Thank you to Shilppa Sabarinathann and Jacqueline Koo for their expert organising.

Key takeaways included:

💡 Identify the areas of dispute requiring specialist input at the outset of the dispute.

💡 Identify an expert with the relevant expertise.

💡 Have clear instructions at the outset - work with your expert to make sure you're asking the right questions.

💡 Gather the requisite information.

💡 Communicating effectively with your expert is important, mindful that the expert must retain his or her independence.

💡 Clear instructions are necessary to make any joint expert process effective and useful.

💡 Be clear about what the expert must do in the hearing.

This event was co-organised by KordaMentha, the Young Practitioners' Subcommittee - ERA Pledge and YAWP - Young ArbitralWomen Practitioners. 

What separates a complex dispute from a (merely) complicated one? And what are the issues that experts commonly face in dealing with quantification issues in complex disputes?

Many thanks to Berkeley Research Group LLC's experts, Nelida Abi Saab, Pascale Leymin and Athanasia Arapogianni, for a fantastic training today. We discussed practical issues for experts and counsel in international arbitrations, including:

💠 How legal counsel and experts can work together effectively 

💠 Common issues that arise and how to mitigate them 

💠 Case studies of complex disputes, and how the tricky expert issues were addressed

Today's training is part of YAWP - Young ArbitralWomen Practitioners and the Young Practitioners' Subcommittee - ERA Pledge's flagship training workshop series on damages and other expert topics. 

Explaining complex damages issues in a simple way is hard. But the FTI Consulting team, comprising Tara Singh, CPA, CBV, CFE, Marion Gady and Margaux Jarry, did this perfectly, at today's YAWP - Young ArbitralWomen Practitioners and Arbitration Pledge YPSC's training on "Timing issues in damages quantification".

Through a hypothetical case study, we explored three key issues:

💰 Country risk premium in Weighted Average Cost of Capital

💰 Pre-award interest

💰 Valuation date

As the experts pointed out, there often isn't consistent jurisprudence on these issues. Tribunals have a lot of discretion to make decisions on specific elements of a valuation analysis, which has a significant impact on the actual amount of damages awarded. In these circumstances, a robust expert and legal analysis is all the more important.

For those who don't know, today's training was part of the Training Workshop Series on Damages and Other Expert Topics. This is a flagship programme for YAWP and the YPSC.

Our goal is to equip practitioners with the skills to navigate complex and contested expert evidence.

Stay tuned for more training workshops!

With thanks also to Juliette Fortin and Olga Sendetska for organising and presenting.

With thanks also to our supporting organisations, Oil, Gas & Energy Law (OGEL) / Transnational Dispute Management (TDM), R.E.A.L. - Racial Equality for Arbitration Lawyers and the Rising Arbitrators Initiative. 

Massive thanks to AlixPartners for a brilliant workshop on quantification issues arising in the M&A context. It was an informative and enjoyable webinar covering topics including:

🟠 An overview of recent trends in M&A transactions, e.g., 2021 was an extremely busy year for M&A transactions, especially in the tech sector

🟠 The importance of sensible instructions for constructing a counterfactual

🟠 A simple and elegant solution for assembling a fraud case

With thanks to our trainers, Zach Li (李宸璋）, Sheng Bi, CFA, CBV, Heather Bolner, ASA, CFE, Brent Carlson and Anne-Marie Hitchin.

This workshop is part of YAWP - Young ArbitralWomen Practitioners and the Equal Representation in Arbitration Pledge Young Practitioners' Subcommittee's popular Workshop Training Series on Damages and Other Expert Topics.  

Coffee and COVID. Thank you to the EY team for an informative and thought-provoking session on the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on quantum assessment. We considered this issue by looking at a case study arising out of a pre-pandemic failure to supply coffee machines, with post-pandemic implications.

Thank you to Sanaa Babaa, Matt Fritzsche, Sandra Mossios, Sarah Cameron, Curtis Isaac Mparutsa, Marion Lespiau and Ekaterina Korolkova for the creation and the execution of this fantastic training. It was great to engage with the other participants too and to learn from their experience, including Katherine Jonckheere, Yuri Pedroza Leite FCIArb, Brenda Horrigan and David MacArthur.

If you didn't join us today, another session will be run tomorrow (Thursday 21 Oct) at 3pm-5pm BST. Registrations have closed but let me know if you'd still like to join.

This workshop was co-organised by YAWP - Young ArbitralWomen Practitioners and the Equal Representation in Arbitration Pledge Young Practitioners Subcommittee. If you have questions about our programmes, please feel free to get in touch.

Our supporting organisations were the Rising Arbitrators Initiative and R.E.A.L. - Racial Equality for Arbitration Lawyers.