CIArb at the LexisNexis Legal Awards 2020

L to R: Lucy Greenwood C.Arb FCIArb on stage with 'The Award for Sustainability' winner, and host Alexander Armstrong

Wednesday 11 March 2020 marked a spectacular night for the legal industry – the award ceremony and gala dinner for LexisNexis ‘Legal Awards 2020’, which attracted an impressive number of guests, in a prestigious location, the Sheraton Grand London Park Lane, one of London’s finest examples of Art Deco architecture.

The LexisNexis Legal Awards were launched in 2013 to recognise and celebrate excellence and innovation across the legal sector. Winners included Allen & Overy, Womble Bond Dickenson, Freshfields, Mischon de Reya, and The Rt. Hon. Baroness Hale of Richmond. The 18 award categories celebrated the best of the best across the whole of the legal spectrum. These included Diversity and Inclusion, Wellbeing, Pro Bono, Business Development, Legal Services Innovation and Law Firm of the Year. For 2020, LexisNexis introduced four new awards categories - Case of the Year, Deal of the Year, Sustainability and International Team of the Year.

The ceremony saw the unveiling of this year’s Law Firm of the Year - Irwin Mitchell, Legal Personality of the Year - Ryan Whelan, Gibson Dunn and Lifetime Contribution Award - Baroness Hale of Richmond. Full list of 2020 categories, nominees and winners is available here.

The prestigious awards were judged by a panel of leading figures in the legal world, including the Law Society President, Simon Davis, Chair of the Bar, Richard Atkins QC and Baroness Helena Kennedy QC, the Director of the International Bar Association’s Human Rights Institute. To view this year’s  panel, please visit organiser’s website.

The Award for Sustainability, proudly sponsored by the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators was presented on stage by Lucy Greenwood C.Arb FCIArb, Member of CIArb Board of Trustees, and ambassador of our Institute’s new green initiatives.

The sustainability award is a new category created for this year’s awards and recognises the law firm, chambers or in-house team, which has demonstrated the strongest commitment to improving the environmental sustainability of its operations and activities.

Judges for this award were Professor Robert Lee, Director of Centre for Professional Legal Education and Research, University of Birmingham, and Jeff Twentyman, Partner, Slaughter & May - you can find their biographies here.

The winners, Womble Bond Dickinson, were selected because the judges felt that the winning entry stood out as a result of the close involvement of the most senior level of management in leading the firm’s responsible business activities. In addition to being a founding member of the Legal Sustainability Alliance, their sustainability initiatives and commitment to reducing the carbon footprint of their business have received external validation through their being awarded both Planet Mark certification and ISO14001 accreditation, an international standard for environmental management. 

About the winner:

Womble Bond Dickenson (WBD) is committed to enhancing its environmental performance and finding sustainable ways to improve its environmental management. Working alongside other organisations and suppliers, the firm takes positive action on climate change by measuring, reducing and reporting on its carbon footprint. The Award for Sustainability from LexisNexis emphasises WBD’s dedication to sustainable business practices. In 2018 the firm completed its first year of carbon footprint reporting with The Planet Mark, achieving Planet Mark certification and setting a target to reduce emissions by 5% annually across all of its eight UK offices.

About the sponsor:

Chartered Institute of Arbitrators (CIArb) is leading the way in adopting more environmentally friendly policies in its offices and branches across the globe. It is also actively supporting a new initiative in the international dispute community, the “Pledge for Greener Arbitrations”. This initiative was launched in November 2019 to assess the carbon impact of international arbitrations and to encourage arbitration practitioners to consider the environment when conducting arbitrations. For more information and to sign up to the Green Pledge, please access the website.

Lucy Greenwood C.Arb FCIArb (Greenwood Abitration) is an independent international arbitrator specialising in commercial and investment disputes. She has over 20 years of experience in commercial and investment treaty arbitrations in a wealth of different industries and has acted as counsel or arbitrator in more than 60 arbitrations. She is highly regarded for her prompt, efficient resolution of disputes and active case management of arbitrations and is recognized in Who's Who Arbitration, Legal 500 and Global Arbitration Review. She is a Chartered Arbitrator, a Texas attorney and a Solicitor of the Supreme Court of England and Wales. Lucy is leading a team of committed to changing the way in which international arbitrations are conducted.

                    
 Lucy Greenwood C.Arb FCIArb on stage presenting the Award for Sustainability sponsored by CIArb

Chartered Institute of Arbitrators has moved to digital only content for its flagship journal “The International Journal of Arbitration, Mediation and Dispute Management” and its quarterly magazine “The Resolver”. Making one tonne of paper requires four trees and emits more than 1.5 tonnes of CO2e (carbon dioxide equivalent). Making the complete change to digital only signals the importance of green behaviours to the wider international dispute community. As Greenwood says: "We may be actively addressing climate change issues at home, but we believe that once we engage in our arbitration practice, it is someone else’s problem. The international arbitration industry is made up of several autonomous parts: arbitrators, counsel, parties, institutions, as the main players, plus all the supporting acts such as court reporters, printers, couriers, hotels, airlines, taxi firms, and so on. We cannot absolve ourselves of our personal responsibility to address our environmental impact on each part of the arbitration we participate in."

                    
L to R: Paul Winter (CEO, Live Strategy), Iolanda Ghica (Head of Marketing, CIArb), Tom Cadman (Deputy Director General, CIArb), Dr Paresh Kathrani (Director of Professional Services, CIArb), Lucy Greenwood (Greenwood Arbitration; Member of Board of Trustees, CIArb)