THE AUTHORS:
Lisa Reiser, Senior Associate at Baker McKenzie
Ulrike Gantenberg, Founder at Gantenberg Dispute Experts
The IBA Arb40 Subcommittee launched a competition to compile and publish poignant stories from this period, forming a distinctive compendium of shared experiences. Exploring the depths of the international arbitration community, the IBA Arb40 Common Heritage of International Arbitration Competition for the Most Meaningful Personal Stories unfolds a tapestry of diverse narratives.
Spanning the globe, these stories capture the human side of international arbitration, showcasing triumphs, challenges, and the interconnectedness that defines our professional journey. Each article in this collection offers a unique lens into our Common Heritage of International Arbitration, underscoring the significance of camaraderie, mentorship, and shared experiences within our global community.
The following article received high commendation in the competition.
Who has experienced, when flying business class, that the stewardess addresses the female passenger by her family name? It often happens. Why? Because she is the only female passenger. A name to be remembered, and specially for the flight crew.
It is no different in international arbitration. Just like in business class, it’s common to be the only female in the hearing room, other than the court reporter and translators. The justification has often been that there are not enough women doing arbitration. However, now that Arbitration Lunch Match participants spam LinkedIn (#arbitrationlunchmatch) twice a year, across all time zones, with pictures of tables overcrowded with female arbitration practitioners from around the globe, there is colourful and joyful evidence of female-power! Many incredible female arbitration practitioners exist – with all different years of working experience. This is a fabulous depiction, evidencing that the field of arbitration is capable of changing habits. What a success for an initiative that had started from a totally different setting.
Take the spring of 2020. The Covid-19 pandemic hit the globe. For a small crowd of 20 women in Düsseldorf, Germany, this meant no more open lunch meeting, which had occurred every first Wednesday of the quarter in the same restaurant. All 20 women worked in arbitration, and they all looked forward to these informal and fun gatherings. But they were all forced to work from home. No social contact. No physical hearings. No conferences. No meetings.
When restaurants reopened in Germany, authorities admitted – very German thinking – people from four different households to meet at the same table in a restaurant. The two organisers of the Düsseldorf lunch group, Ulrike Gantenberg and Lisa Reiser, decided to make the best of it. True to the motto “when life gives you lemons, make lemonade,” Ulrike and Lisa decided to cut-back their lunches to a maximum of four women. But the “secret ingredient” to their lemonade was found when they decided that one key detail will not be revealed to their female colleagues: participants of the lunch will not be given the names of the other women with whom they have been matched. It was a blind date! The Arbitration Lunch Match was born.
What started as a small idea in three German cities in September 2020 became a global phenomenon within less than two years. International arbitration practitioners requested to (and still do) participate with women in their city and community in the Arbitration Lunch Matches. For each new country added to the map of Arbitration Lunch Matches a system of “ambassadors” is created. These ambassadors send out the invitations and coordinate the logistics with the restaurants in their hometown. With a little help from artificial intelligence, registrations worldwide are gathered and matched to find the perfect fit. During a round of the Arbitration Lunch Match in 2023, over 1,500 women had blind date lunches in 49 cities across the world.
But Arbitration Lunch Match is more than a lunch appointment in your calendar. It creates a sense of belonging. It is a community. The community of women in arbitration is not only big, but also connected, supportive, and expanding. It is very comforting and encouraging, especially when you are used to being the only woman in the room.
Besides, Arbitration Lunch Match creates memorable stories: some colleagues found a sense of belonging through their lunch group and continue to regularly meet with the same constellation. Some colleagues found a new work connection through Arbitration Lunch Match. Some colleagues have re-established old friendships.
And while others may do island hopping in their vacation, female arbitration practitioners can do city hopping, while travelling on business and making new connections in cities far from home. So did a colleague from Hong Kong, who registered last minute for a lunch in Germany as her travel plans changed. She inspired the concept of a “jumpseat” participation for last minute business travellers during the event week. Women can reach out to Ulrike and Lisa to join a lunch in any of the 44 cities. As travel resumes once again, the adventure of lunching in another country with a group of foreign female practitioners is a fundamental contribution to the international character of the arbitration. Hopefully, the “bitter lemons” of the Covid-19 pandemic will soon be gone, but Arbitration Lunch Match is here to stay. So, register, participate, and have a sip of lemonade.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Ulrike Gantenberg is one of the leading personalities in dispute resolution, specializing in national and international arbitration. Leveraging over a decade of corporate and M&A advisory experi-ence, Ulrike serves as an arbitrator and advises clients in complex proceedings with partic-ular dedication to energy related disputes, turn-key construction and post-M&A/contract disputes. Her practice covers international commercial arbitration, investor-state disputes, adjudication proceedings, and litigation. As a qualified German lawyer with working experi-ence in France, she is dedicated to international work, having participated in arbitration proceedings across various jurisdictions. Her extensive arbitrator experience significantly influences her counsel work.
Lisa Reiser is a senior associate at Baker McKenzie Frankfurt with twelve years of experience in dispute resolution through international arbitration, mediation, adjudication and state court litigation. In international arbitration proceedings, she regularly advises clients in construction matters, such as disputes over offshore wind farm projects, as well as in post-M&A disputes. To help clients in their decision-making process, Lisa relies on legal tech and risk analysis methods to calculate the chances and risks for clients to succeed with their specific claims. She also regularly works together with delay and quantum experts to ensure that clients receive the best possible return for their investment. In addition, Lisa is experienced in working together with third-party funders in arbitration proceedings. Lisa is a regular speaker at national and international conferences in the field of arbitration. She is the founder of the international networking event “Arbitration Lunch Match” and co-host of the podcast “#zukunft – Der Podcast zur Schiedsgerichtsbarkeit” where she discusses current and future topics in the world of international arbitration.
This article was first published on the website of the Arbitration Committee of the Legal Practice Division of the International Bar Association, and is reproduced by kind permission of the International Bar Association, London, UK. © International Bar Association.
Available at: https://www.ibanet.org/Arb40-Competition
