The co-chairs of USCIB/ICC USA’s and ICC Canada’s Arbitration Expatriate Subcommittees, Charles Kaplan of Orrick and Aren Goldsmith of Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton LLP organized their annual joint meeting in Paris on April 9th. The meeting was also organized by Andrew McDougall and Kirsten Odynski both of White & Case.
Held at Orrick, the co-chairs opened the meeting and introduced Alexander Fessas, secretary general of the ICC Court, who gave a presentation about recent developments at the ICC Court. Thereafter, Chris Moore of Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton LLP in London discussed the ICC Practice Note on summary dispositions and its future application. Vasuda Sinha of Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer’s Paris office ended the substantive segment of the meeting with a presentation comparing the practice of the Canadian, U.S. and Paris national courts in supporting the taking of evidence for use in international arbitrations.
The meeting ended with McDougall providing an update on ICC Canada’s activities, and Grant Hanessian, chair of the USCIB/ICC USA arbitration committee, discussing recent developments with the group.
At that time, Nancy Thevenin, USCIB’s general counsel, presented Axel Baum of Hughes Hubbard & Reed, LLP with a plaque recognizing him for “his many years of leadership of the U.S. arbitration community in Europe and long-standing service on the ICC Arbitration Commission.”
Baum, who was one of the longest serving U.S. members of the ICC Commission, also served as the first chair of the U.S.’s arbitration expatriate committee and helped start the yearly tradition of the joint meeting. Baum also oversaw the transition of group’s leadership to Kaplan and Goldsmith.