Gary Born and breaking the Old Boys’ Network

Gary Born

Under the title “Appointment as Arbitrator- Breaking the Old Boys’ Network”, Women in Arab Arbitration (“WIAR”), organised a luncheon on May 8, 2017.

The event hosted by Thomas Snider, Al Tamimi’s head of arbitration practice, featured as a guest of honour Gary Born, president of the Singapore International Arbitration Centre (SIAC) Court of Arbitration and Chair of the International Arbitration Practice Group, Wilmer Cutler, Pickering, Hale and Dorr LLP.

During the event, Born answered questions from more than 35 participants on how a female practitioner can increase her chances of getting appointed as an arbitrator. Born emphasised that there is no substitute to hard-work in order to achieve success generally. He recommended each practitioner to distinguish herself individually and create her own public persona.

It was Born’s view that promoting diversity in arbitration should not be limited to gender diversity and should extend to age diversity.He described younger arbitrators as being more eager to do a good job and having more attention to details.

Born also spoke about Professor Catherine Rogers’ Arbitrator Intelligence project (“AI”), which aims to provide information on individual arbitrators by (i) making their profiles publicly available and (ii) allowing the parties involved in arbitration to give feedback on the conduct of their respective arbitrators.

The event was organised by WIAR in collaboration with IlhamKabbouri of Hogan Lovells and Al Tamimi and Company.