Dear members of the ITA community,

 I write to add my welcome to this inaugural issue of our new multimedia journal ITA in Review and to tell you about several other exciting developments now underway in ITA. I encourage all of you to join us in Dallas in June at the 31^st Workshop and ITA Annual Meeting.

With ITA in Review, our plan is to continue to provide the high quality scholarly articles and analyses on key developments in the field that we’ve previously published in our print journal World Arbitration and Mediation Review but with the addition of a variety of new multimedia features enabled by the digital delivery format. We intend to offer selected “best of ITA” conference presentations not only via written transcripts but also with video and audio options. With linked text, photo galleries, and audio/video presentations for listening “on the go,” this first issue provides examples of the range of content we can now offer. For future issues we welcome creative digital submissions.

While we are indeed excited about ITA in Review, I am equally happy to report major progress by ITA on other fronts as well. ITA has grown to all-time highs this year in membership, programs and publications. We now count over 2,000 members and volunteer editors, reporters, speakers and other annual contributors to the Institute’s work (the “ITA community”). With active committed leadership at all levels, and the welcome addition of new ITA Counsel Cecilia Flores Rueda and Staff Coordinator Véronique Fally, ITA is poised to continue to serve well its members and the international arbitration community at large.

Young ITA

Our Young ITA has enjoyed astounding growth since a major reorganization two years ago. Young ITA membership has grown from 23 members and 2 officers in 2017 to over 1,200 members and 13 officers now in 69 countries. Young ITA programs growth has been equally impressive. In 2018 alone, 16 two-three hour  #YoungITATalks programs were presented in 14 cities and 11 countries around the world: Dubai, Frankfurt, Guatemala City, Lima, London (3), Miami, New Delhi, New York, Paris, Quito, São Paulo (2), San José (Costa Rica) and Washington, D.C. Almost 1,000 registrants and speakers participated in these conferences. These programs were presented by both younger counsel and some of the world’s most prominent arbitrators. A Conference Report and Photo Gallery of the #YoungITATalks Costa Rica program are presented elsewhere in this issue of ITA in Review. Gary Born’s keynote on “The Future of International Arbitration” at the #YoungITATalks Lima program is available in both video and audio formats in this issue.

Thanks for this outreach to the next generation of international arbitration counsel are due to the Young ITA Chair Silvia Marchili (White & Case, Houston and Miami), Vice Chair Elizabeth Delaney (Senior Corporate Counsel – Litigation, Occidental Petroleum, Houston), Communications Chair Robert Landicho (Vinson & Elkins, Houston), and our eight Regional Chairs: South America Chair José María de la Jara (ABA Rule of Law Initiative Peru, Lima), Europe Chair Rocío Digón (White & Case, Paris), North America Chair James Egerton-Vernon (Jones Day, DC), Africa Chair Demilade Isioma Elemo (Folashade Alli & Associates, Lagos), Brazil Chair Pedro Guilhardi (Nanni Advogados, São Paulo), Central America Chair Karima Sauma (Executive Director, AmCham Costa Rica, San José), Asia Chair Aditya Singh (White & Case, Singapore), and UK Chair Tomas Vail (London).

The 1^st Young ITA Mentorship Program is now underway under the excellent leadership of Mentorship Chair Laura Sinisterra, with 16 mentors, 64 mentees and 16 facilitators participating, and by all accounts proceeding well. The next program will begin in the fall, with applications available this summer. Many thanks to this year’s mentors Crina Baltag, Lorraine de Germiny, Gaëlle Filhol, Cecilia Flores Rueda, Christophe Guibert de Bruet, Hugh Hackney, Bart Legum, Elina Mereminskaya, Philippe Pinsolle, Dietmar Prager, Monique Sasson, Luke Sobota, Pablo Spiller, and Epaminontas Triantafilou.

The 1^st Young ITA Writing Competition and Award: “New Voices in International Arbitration has produced its award winner: Damien Charlotin, a PhD. Candidate at Cambridge University. The $3,000 cash award will be presented during the Advisory Board’s Annual Dinner in Dallas on June 20 and the paper will be published in a future issue of ITA in Review. Thanks are due to Young ITA Thought Leadership Chair Dr. Crina Baltag for organizing so well this first competition, to final round judges Prof. Chip Brower, Dominique Brown-Berset, and Jim Loftis, and to first round judges Crina, Silvia Marchili, Liz Devaney, Rob Landicho and Laura Sinisterra.

Finally, I am very pleased to announce the new chair and vice chair of Young ITA for the 2019-2021 term: Robert Landicho (Vinson & Elkins, Houston) will serve as chair and Dr. Crina Baltag (University of Bedfordshire, Luton, UK) will serve as vice chair. Other leadership positions for the 2019-2021 term will be determined by an applications process now underway.

ITA-IEL-ICC Joint Conference on International Energy Arbitration - Singapore

ITA and the Institute for Energy Law joined forces on an international energy arbitration conference in Houston in 2014, joined by the ICC International Court of Arbitration in 2016. The program has grown each year since inception. Buoyed by this success and the apparent demand for a top quality program focused on this important area of international arbitration, the ITA, IEL and ICC decided last year to develop a similar collaboration for Asia and settled on Singapore as the venue.

The first ITA-IEL-ICC Joint Conference on International Energy Arbitration – Singapore will be presented in Singapore on September 18-19, 2019, organized by co-chairs Edmund Chan (General Counsel, ExxonMobil Asia Pacific Pte Ltd, Singapore), Wade Coriell (King & Spalding, Singapore) and Nicholas Lingard (Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer), Singapore). We hope this initial effort will provide a footprint for future programs in the region. If your practice or interest includes Asia, please make your plans now to join us in Singapore.

Ongoing Activities

The developments outlined above are of course only a few of the many activities now underway in ITA, including the Academic Council’s annual ITA-ASIL Conference and ongoing oral history video project, the Americas Initiative’s annual Americas Workshop and Spanish-Portuguese language listserv ITAFOR, the monthly ITA Arbitration Report at KluwerArbitration.com now with 81 reporters covering 60 jurisdictions, our Online Education library offering over 20 hours of CLE-accredited video programs, Observer participation in UNITRAL Working Group III, and Task Forces on In-House Counsel, UNCITRAL, Nominations and Podcasts.

It all comes together at the annual Workshop and Annual Meeting each June in Dallas. There members, speakers, editors, academics, young lawyers and new participants gather for education, business networking, dialogue and a bit of fun as well.

Please make your plans now to join us this year on June 19-21 at the 2019 Annual Meeting and Workshop: Adjudicating Changed Circumstances in Commercial and Treaty Arbitration. Here are some highlights:

• Organized and led by co-chairs Dean Céline Lévesque (University of Ottawa
  Ottawa), Tom Sikora (Senior Counsel, Exxon Mobil Corporation) and Gäetan Verhoosel (Three Crowns, London).
• Two keynote addresses will be delivered: by Klaus Peter Berger (Institute for Banking Law, University of Cologne) and Yas Banifatemi (Shearman & Sterling, Paris).
• The Workshop luncheon will feature an oral history interview with George Bermann, Columbia Law School, New York) by Prof. Susan Franck (American University Washington College of Law, Washington, D.C.).
• Among our many exceptional speakers this year, our program will include Julie Bédard (Skadden, Arps, New York), Paula Hodges (Herbert Smith, London), Philippe Pinsolle (Quinn Emanuel, Geneva), and Eduardo Zuleta (Zuleta Abogados, Bogotá) and the leaders of our burgeoning Young ITA.
• Multiple networking and social events, including the Oral History Luncheon, Welcome Reception and Workshop Dinner.

ITA members – who attend tuition-free – can also participate in ITA Annual Meeting activities including the Advisory Board Dinner Meeting, committee meetings and the ITA Forum, our annual informal, off-the-record discussion of current developments and concerns among ITA members, Workshop Faculty, and special guests.

You may know that ITA is one division among several of The Center for American and International Law (CAIL). CAIL’s other institutes and programs address important developments in legal fields ranging from international business to energy to technology to law enforcement. I encourage you to visit the CAIL website at www.cailaw.org and to encourage colleagues with interest in these fields to join the CAIL institute in their area of practice and enjoy the many benefits that membership provides.

ITA’s success depends on the active participation and support of its members in programs, publications and new initiatives. If you are already a member, please do let us know of your interests, suggestions and any concerns. If you are not already a member, please join us now.

Sincerely,

Joseph E. Neuhaus

Chair, Institute for Transnational Arbitration Advisory Board