Party Participation in an Arbitration

Nasser Bin khaled Hall, 2nd Floof,
Qatar Chamber

Complimentary
Limited Seats

About the Series

The ICC Qatar Commission on Arbitration and ADR is pleased to announce that from January to May 2017, it will host a monthly series of seminars on Arbitration and ADR in Qatar. This series follows the Commission’s charge to foster the development of trade and investment between Qatar and the international business community. The series is not only aimed at arbitration practitioners, but intended to help inform professionals across the entire Qatari community from businesses, governmental agencies and public and private sectors to students.

The seminars are presented by Commission members and distinguished colleagues, and will address the changes and developments in foreign and domestic arbitration in Qatar, how Qatari professionals might prepare for arbitration and ADR proceedings, and discussion of how arbitration in Qatar links to the international business community and investments.

Party Participation In An Arbitration

You decided to bring a dispute to arbitration, you found legal counsel, and together you drafted and submitted a request for arbitration to the ICC. What now? While legal counsel has a lot of work in the arbitration, parties are not simply “along for the ride.” The process of arbitration involves a back and forth between parties to the dispute and their legal counsel, as the parties have to make strategic decisions about the dispute, have to keep update to date on dispute progress and upcoming deadlines, respond to document requests, provide fact witnesses and witness statements, and review and comment on submittals to the tribunal. A panel of distinguished individuals from Qatar Foundation, Qatar Rail, and the International Chamber of Commerce Global Commission on Arbitration and ADR will discuss their processes for working with counsel while in arbitration, both good and bad experiences from prior disputes, and lessons learned from their experiences.

Presentation will be conducted in English with Arabic Translation

Stephen Hibbert, General Counsel of Qatar Rail

Stephen Hibbert is the head of legal services and general counsel of the Qatar Railways Company. Stephen has over 30 years’ experience as a major projects lawyer and arbitrator. He qualified first as a civil engineer. He was made Adj. Professor at the University of New South Wales in 1998 and was a senior lecturer at Sydney University from 1992 to 1998. Stephen has been in the Middle East now for over 10 years and whilst in private practice represented the Government of Qatar in project arbitrations in Doha, before joining Qatar Rail in 2012.

Christopher Newmark, ICC Global ADR chair

Chris specialises in international arbitration and ADR. Having started sitting as an arbitrator after leaving international law firm Baker & McKenzie in 2007, Chris is now a busy arbitrator. He has acted as chairman, sole arbitrator or party appointed arbitrator in international arbitrations under ICC, LCIA, SCC and UNCITRAL rules, as well as ad hoc proceedings. Chris was the first emergency arbitrator to be appointed by the ICC under the Emergency Arbitrator Provisions introduced in the 2012 ICC Rules of Arbitration. Chris is also an experienced commercial mediator, conducting his mediation practice through CEDR Chambers, one of the UK’s leading groups of mediators. He has conducted well over 100 mediations for CEDR, ICC, LCIA, WIPO, Sport Resolutions UK and Consensus Mediation. He has recently been appointed to the CAS mediation panel. Chris has also acted as an adjudicator and a tribunal appointed expert on issues of English law. Chris was appointed Chairman of the ICC Commission on International Arbitration and ADR with effect from 1 January 2014. Prior to taking up this position, he was a member of the Drafting Sub-Committee of the 2012 ICC Rules of Arbitration and chaired the task force set up to review the ICC ADR Rules, Expertise Rules and Dispute Board Rules. He also co-chaired the ICC task force on reducing time and cost in complex commercial arbitrations.From 2007 to 2010, Chris sat on the board of directors of the International Institute for Conflict Prevention and Resolution (CPR) in New York. Chris was a rapporteur to the CEDR Commission on Settlement in International Arbitration whose report and rules were published in 2009.Chris writes and speaks regularly on arbitration and ADR. He is a Senior Visiting Lecturer at the School of International Arbitration, Centre for Commercial Law Studies, Queen Mary University of London. He is also a member of CEDR’s teaching faculty.

Qatar Foundation Counsel

Michael Mitchel, General Counsel

Michael Mitchell is the recently appointed General Counsel of Qatar Foundation (QF). In this role, he oversees QF’s global legal activities and policies, management of the day-to-day activities of the QF Legal Department, and is responsible for providing proactive legal advice and counsel to the CEO and the Board of Directors on a broad range of legal and strategic matters. Previously, he was Vice President and Senior Associate General Counsel at The Ohio State University, one of the world’s largest tier 1 research universities. Michael Mitchell joined Ohio State in 2004 from the law firm of Calfee, Halter & Griswold, where he had focused on entity formation, and capitalization and transactional activities of technology start-ups and emerging companies; responsibilities centered on corporate finance, intellectual property protection and technology commercialization. Prior to that, he was General Counsel of Level Energy, Inc., a retail and wholesale energy distribution and logistics company located in Cleveland, Ohio. Michael has spoken frequently at the local and national levels in the United States. He received a J.D. degree from Case Western Reserve University in 1990 and a B.A. degree in political science from the University of Wisconsin, Green Bay in 1987.

Thomas P. Wilson, Squire Patton Boggs (moderator)

Tom Wilson heads the firm’s construction and arbitration practices in the Middle East. Lauded in Legal 500 as “very experienced, capable and practical,” and in Chambers as a “top practitioner,” Tom is among the leading construction disputes lawyers in the Middle East. He represents public and private owners, international contractors, and original equipment manufacturers in resolving disputes over the construction and operation of infrastructure assets.

Tom has considerable experience resolving disputes through arbitration and alternative dispute resolution and serves as advocate in ICC, LCIA and DIAC arbitrations, and in DIFC court proceedings. Further, Tom occasionally accepts appointments to sit as arbitrator.

Tom advises clients with regard to project delivery systems, contract negotiation, contract compliance, and risk management. He also serves as project counsel to clients executing complex projects. In this role, Tom helps clients to avoid disputes or to achieve early resolution of disputes through structured negotiation and mediation, often during the pendency of the project.