September saw the announcement of four new Mute Off Thursdays Co-Chairs, as the popular online forum for senior female practitioners in arbitration entered its fifth year. Laura Halonen, Juliana de Ureña, Diora Ziyaeva and Clea Bigelow-Nuttall – all of whom are members of ArbitralWomen, with Clea being a member of the 2024-2026 board – were welcomed as Co-Chairs for the 2024-2026 term, taking over from outgoing Co-Chairs Shreya Aren, Lindsay Gastrell, Elena Gutierrez García de Cortázar and Jennifer Bryant. The online networking and knowledge-sharing platform was created in 2020 by founders Gaëlle Filhol, former ArbitralWomen Board Member and Executive Committee member, Claire Morel de Westgaver, Ema Vidak Friedman and Catherine Anne Kunz.
Since its launch in April 2020 with 42 women, the Mute Off platform has grown to a community of over 750 members from around the world, all of whom have at least seven years of experience in international arbitration. The incoming Mute Off Co-Chairs have stated their desire to increase and diversify geographical participation on the platform, particularly amongst senior female practitioners from Africa, the Middle East, Asia, and Latin America to ensure that the group more accurately reflects the global community of arbitration practitioners.
Laura Halonen is a Finnish native and an English solicitor and of Counsel at Wagner Arbitration. She advises and represents clients in international investment and commercial arbitrations for 20 years. She has worked on some of the world’s leading ISDS cases as counsel and currently also acts as arbitrator in commercial disputes
Clea Bigelow-Nuttall is a shareholder in the London office of Greenberg Traurig’s International Arbitration team. Clea focuses on commercial and investment arbitration. She has particular experience representing clients in the infrastructure, construction, and mining and energy sectors, and has represented private companies, state-owned entities and states in numerous international arbitrations including under the ICC, LCIA, DIAC, HKIAC, SIAC, ICSID, and UNCITRAL Rules.
Juliana de Ureña is a Colombian independent arbitrator, and counsel, who recently founded JDU Arbitration based between Madrid and Bogotá. Juliana has a 360º view on arbitration having acted as counsel, arbitral institution and arbitrator. Her experience includes participating in arbitration proceedings across multiple jurisdictions, applying laws from CISG, Namibia, Switzerland, Argentina, Israel, Mexico, Ecuador, Chile, England, and Spain. She specializes in construction, energy and M&A disputes involving Latin-American parties.
Dentons Partner Diora Ziyaeva co-leads the firm’s Mining & Natural Resources practice from her base in New York. Licensed in New York and Uzbekistan and fluent in seven languages, Diora is recognized within the legal community as one of the top international lawyers of her generation. She sits as arbitrator and serves as counsel in a broad range of international matters and is a Member of the ICC International Court of Arbitration. Over the course of her career, Diora has represented States, corporations, and individuals in disputes under the rules of all the major arbitral institutions, as well as several regional institutions. Diora is the first female from the Republic of Uzbekistan to graduate from Harvard Law School.
ArbitralWomen reported on Mute Off Thursdays just after it was founded in 2020, on the occasion of Mute Off’s first anniversary on 15 April 2021, and again on the introduction of the co-chairs for the 2022-2024 term. Mute Off Thursdays was established by the founders in the midst of the Covid-19 pandemic as a way to help women leaders in international arbitration stay connected, share knowledge, support and promote one another. It won the GAR Pledge Diversity Award in 2021. Mute Off members meet via Zoom at the same time on Thursday each week (9am ET). At most sessions, one woman from the group – including many ArbitralWomen Board members and members – makes a brief presentation about an issue that she has encountered in her practice or that falls within her area of expertise. The presentation is then followed by a group discussion, and to encourage an open exchange among the participants, the Chatham House rule applies.
The popularity of the initiative also led to the creation in August 2020 of Young Mute Off Thursdays, a sister organisation of younger women practitioners with less than seven years of experience. Young Mute Off Thursdays have also recently refreshed its leadership and is now co-chaired by Jessica Sblendorio (Omnia Strategy, London), Miranda Elvidge (Wilmer Hale, London), Laure Poirson (Pinsent Masons, Paris) and Kimberly Bazelais (Signature Litigation, Paris).
Submitted by ArbitralWomen members and Mute Off Co-Chairs Laura Halonen, Juliana de Ureña, Diora Ziyaeva and Clea Bigelow-Nuttall.