The Delos GAP Symposium event, “The Last Mile: Prompting Compliance With The Award Without Having To Enforce It“, took place successfully on 9 March 2022.
In modern arbitration, the final award is no longer the end of the journey. While enforcing arbitral awards remains generally easier than foreign judgments, stating that such enforcement can be challenging sometimes is a euphemism. The 2021 Delos Arbitration Rules have introduced a one-of-a-kind contractual mechanism, called the Compliance Reinforcement Mechanism (“CRM”), which was nominated for the 2022 GAR Award for Innovation.
This mechanism, which will hopefully enhance the enforcement of awards, allows Delos to publish, inter alia, the identity of the defaulting party and of the portions of the dispositive of the award that have not been complied with, within the boundaries of due process, upon the application of the successful party faced with the other side’s refusal to comply. Our distinguished panel, comprising the following in-house counsel and attorneys, all arbitration specialists, discussed the ins and outs of this mechanism, together with the challenges and opportunities arising from this new tool.
ABOUT THE SPEAKERS
Anne-Sophie Gidoin is a Senior Legal Counsel at Bolloré Ports, Railways and Shipping legal HQ. She focuses on disputes management in coordination with local entities mostly based in Africa. Before joining Bolloré in 2021, Anne-Sophie practiced for six years as an arbitration lawyer in international firms both in Paris and Singapore.
Thomas Granier is a co-founder of Delos and member of its Arbitration Consultative Committee, and Counsel at ASAFO & Co. Mr Granier acts as counsel and arbitrator in a wide array of disputes relating in particular to new technologies, IT, energy, M&A, joint-ventures, construction and distribution. Mr Granier has acted in a number of commercial and investment arbitrations, both ad hoc and under the rules of leading institutions, including the HKIAC, the ICC, the LCIA, and ICSID. Prior to joining ASAFO &Co., Mr Granier was an attorney at McDermott Will & Emery, and previously served as counsel for the Africa, Middle-East and Europe Team at the ICC International Court of Arbitration in Paris, after having acted as deputy counsel for the Germany, Switzerland, and Austria Team. At the ICC, Mr Granier supervised more than 300 arbitrations and reviewed a number of arbitration awards. Mr Granier holds degrees from the Université Paris I – Panthéon-Sorbonne (Master 2), the Ludwig-Maximilians Universität in Munich (LL.M.) and the Université Paris II – Panthéon-Assas (Maîtrise). Mr Granier is listed among the Future Leaders of Arbitration by Who’s Who Legal.
Colin Rule is the CEO of Resourceful Internet Solutions, Inc. (“RIS”), home of Mediate.com, MediateUniversity.com, Arbitrate.com, CaseloadManager.com and a number of additional leading online dispute resolution initiatives. From 2017 to 2020, Colin was Vice President for Online Dispute Resolution at Tyler Technologies. Tyler acquired Modria.com, an ODR provider that Colin co-founded, in 2017. Previously, from 2003 to 2011, Colin was Director of Online Dispute Resolution for eBay and PayPal. Further, Colin co-founded Online Resolution in 1999, one of the first online dispute resolution (ODR) providers, and served as its CEO and President. Colin also worked for several years with the National Institute for Dispute Resolution in Washington, D.C. and the Consensus Building Institute in Cambridge, MA. Colin is the author of Online Dispute Resolution for Business, published by Jossey-Bass in September 2002, and co-author of The New Handshake: Online Dispute Resolution and the Future of Consumer Protection, published by the ABA in 2017. Colin received the first Frank Sander Award for Innovation in ADR from the American Bar Association in 2020, and the Mary Parker Follett Award from the Association for Conflict Resolution (ACR) in 2013. Colin holds a Master’s degree from Harvard University’s Kennedy School of Government in conflict resolution and technology, a graduate certificate in dispute resolution from UMass-Boston, a B.A. from Haverford College, and Colin served as a Peace Corps volunteer in Eritrea from 1995-1997. You can read many of Colin’s articles and see some of his talks at colinrule.com/writing.
Sami Tannous is a Middle East disputes specialist focusing on investor-state and international commercial arbitration at Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer LLP. He has represented clients in international arbitrations under all major arbitration rules including the ICC, LCIA, ICSID, DIAC, SCC and UNCITRAL rules, with seats in London, Paris, Dubai, DIFC, Geneva, The Hague and Washington, and also sits as arbitrator. Sami has advised and represented clients on disputes in a broad range of industry sectors, including oil and gas, banking, real estate, defence, travel, media, and construction. Sami has spent a decade in the Middle East, based in Dubai. Before relocating to Dubai, Sami worked in Freshfields’ Paris office, and in London.
Paul Werné is an independent business consultant focussing on business developments in Africa and the Middle East. Paul has been working as Legal or General Counsel for major international groups, mainly in the field of telecommunications. After spending many years in the Orange – France Telecom group, successively as General Counsel for its Directory and Advertising, then its Satellite Transmission and Broadcast line of business, and finally as General Counsel for the group’s non-European operations, he moved to the Middle East where he held the position of Group General Counsel of the United Arab Emirates’ national telecommunications operator, Etisalat, for 8 years, during which Etisalat substantially updated and enhanced its strategy, increased its global reach and ambitiously developed new technologies and activities. Paul has extensive experience in creating, reorganising and managing international legal teams, in mergers and acquisitions, company law, corporate governance and dispute resolution. Paul further serves on the Delos Board of Advisors.
