Exclusive: The Paris-headquartered International Court of Arbitration (ICA) of the International Chambers of Commerce (ICC) has hired its first Indian lawyer in a bid to expand in India by increasing visibility and uptake, despite the remaining problem of judicial interference.
Former Mulla & Mulla associate Abhinav Bhushan, who is a graduate of Government Law College (GLC) Mumbai in 2008 and the Columbia Law School LLM programme last year, has joined the ICC’s commonwealth team last week as one of the two deputy counsel.
He is working under common law counsel Allison Pearsall, who told Legally India: “As common law counsel and having spent some time studying in India, I am interested in developing ICC arbitration in India.”
Bhushan told Legally India that he competed with 100 other applicants, clearing several rounds of interviews, including a final interview with the deputy secretary general of the ICA in Paris.
Pearsall said that the total interview process took approximately two weeks after short listing 40 people, each of whom were interviewed by telephone, with six finally being selected for face-to-face interviews. “We work closely together here at the secretariat,” explained Pearsall about the stringent selection process for her team that has a caseload of around 170. “Our team is comprised of lawyers the UK, Canada and the United States. We felt that that deputy counsel from India could be advantageous given our caseload for India and our continuing work with Indian parties and practitioners.”
“Everybody has to pull together and get along. Everybody comes from different countries,” she said. “[It] brings with it other challenges, social skills are also helpful into working within an international organization in a small team.”
Managing Indian disputes from abroad
ICC India works with the ICA to propose qualified Indian arbitrators to sit on arbitral tribunals under ICC rules, and disburse ICC publications including statistics and rules among Indian exporters and importer.
Pearsall told Legally India that ICC India’s case load last year comprised about 35 cases involving more than 50 Indian parties, arbitrated in Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata and Goa. Pearsall’s Paris-based Commonwealth team handled approximately half of those cases, with the other half managed by a Hong Kong-based team.
“It is always important to keep in mind that users of arbitration, the parties, that bring cases to arbitration, when they draft their contracts, they have a choice of what institutions to bring their case to. You're offering a service; [it] has to be good [and] efficient.”
India future in dispute
Pearsall said that she sees a green flag for ICC India in the fast developing Indian arbitration market, which, in her perception, puts ICC at an advantage despite a number of other arbitral institutions, such as the LCIA and IIAM.
“I think there's a lot of potential for India, culturally and geographically, given the amount of business it does with Europe and Asia,” she said.
Even though India is well-placed commercially, said Pearsall, the perception of the degree of judicial interference in arbitration in India would need to be further addressed to improve India’s reputation as a seat of arbitration.
A modification of the Indian Arbitration Framework could improve India’s image as a desirable seat of arbitration similar to that enjoyed by the United Kingdom.
Popularity contested
When asked about the apparently greater popularity of domestic ad hoc arbitrations vis-à-vis institutional arbitrations in domestically drafted agreements, she said it could partly be attributable to a misconception that institutional arbitration is expensive, or that arbitrating parties have less control over the procedure.
The costs of an ICC arbitration are constantly monitored and even adjusted up or down, she explained.
The ICC offers a lot in terms of service, she claimed. “The cases are monitored by a truly international team coming from a number of different jurisdictions. ICC arbitration cases are monitored by lawyers. Awards are scrutinised by the court, comprised of seasoned international practitioners. No award is rendered without the court approving it as to its form.”
The entry into force of new ICC rules in January was an excellent opportunity to hold educational events on ICC arbitration in Delhi next month, she said. “This will be a good opportunity for the court, its secretariat and ICC India to work closely together to raise awareness of ICC arbitration.”
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Best wishes,
Kian
www.legallyindia.com/201203122631/Law-firms/ropes-a-gray-london-reels-in-nls-00-alum-damodaran-as-partner
www.legallyindia.com/201110282393/Law-firms/jsa-hires-nlsiu-topper-promod-nair-from-herbies-for-bangalore-disputes
Not trying to start a debate here, but all I'm trying to understand is, if it's not someone from NLS, why is the significance of the law school underplayed?
In fact, he was one of the few 2011 US LLMs to have got a job after graduation. Those interested in LLMs would have been aware but we'll also link to the LLM feature now for those who haven't read it yet.
The partners in the two articles you cite all completed their LLM around 10 years ago, so it's less directly relevant.
Finally, the law school is relevant because our readership does consist of a large number of NLS grads, who appear to be a more tightly-knit (and vocal) community than a non-residential university such as GLC, say.
Plus NLS is a far younger and experimental phenomenon than GLC, which makes it more interesting and important to document its alumni.
Headlines are partly there to connect with our readers, and the NLS angle is more often than not an interesting one, and ultimately it boils down to our editorial judgment.
Best wishes
Kian
But the league, indeed, is impressive... :)
As far as the institution is concerned, GLC is not an NLS, but it did give him ample opportunity to grow. He was General Sec. of the MCA, the Students' Council and the Alumni Association, took the D.M. Harish moot international, and he managed all this while he was working at a solicitor firm. Truth is, for those who know how to use it, GLC provides a unique platform to grow.
I wish Abhinav all the very best.
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