The Arbitration Summit 2025

Michelle Bradfield has more than 20 years of experience as a lawyer, with a focus on complex international arbitration often involving public international law. She has been recognized in legal directories for more than a decade. The Legal 500 ranks her in the "Hall of Fame" for both international arbitration and public international law and describes her as "among the best in London" and "one of the few PIL practitioners in London who has appeared across almost all PIL areas — she is simply excellent and vastly experienced." Chambers says "The experience with Michelle Bradfield has been outstanding. She has an excellent knowledge of law and she has also got excellent interpersonal skills."

Michelle has significant experience in representing states and private entities on a wide array of matters, including investment treaty arbitration, international commercial arbitration, boundary and maritime disputes, and deep-sea mining and sovereignty issues. She is regularly involved in "bet-the-company" disputes and has worked for numerous FTSE 100 and Fortune 100 companies in disputes around the globe, including in the United States, Australia, India, Sudan, China, Spain, Brazil, Nigeria, and the United Arab Emirates. Additionally, she has worked for many States, including Australia, Malaysia, Croatia, Turkey, Barbados, Oman, China, and sovereign wealth funds.

Michelle lectures at various universities, including King's College London and has published extensively. She also started her international law career as a Fellow at the Lauterpacht Centre for International Law, the University of Cambridge, and was assistant to Sir Elihu Lauterpacht CBE KC.

Stuart is the Global co-head of our international arbitration practice.

Stuart has drafted complex choice of law clauses and multi-tier and multi-party arbitration and jurisdiction agreements for many transactions, including multi-million dollar M&A deals and international oil and gas projects in the Middle East, Nigeria, India and South America.

Stuart has conducted arbitrations under both common law and civil law in England, mainland Europe (including Sweden, Switzerland, Poland, Hungary and the Czech Republic), the Middle East, Africa and Australia. He has acted for and against parties from the UK, mainland Europe, Central Europe, Asia, North and South America, Australia and Africa.

Claire Morel de Westgaver is a Partner within the firm’s International Arbitration Practice. She is dual-qualified (England & Wales and New York) and has a mixed common and civil law background, having completed her legal education in Belgium and the USA. She practices international arbitration as counsel, advocate and arbitrator, whilst also conducting proceedings in both English and French.

Claire has particular expertise in disputes relating to technology, corporate transactions, licenses, cross-border sale or service agreements, as well as disputes involving secrecy, intellectual property and cybersecurity issues. Her practice covers a broad spectrum of industries, including IT, pharmaceuticals, engineering, commodities, energy, agribusiness, media, art and defence. Claire’s experience also extends to acting in proceedings under the rules of the LCIA, ICC, AAA/ICDR, UNCITRAL and CCJA as well as in ad hoc proceedings. These arbitrations have involved the laws of multiple jurisdictions, including England & Wales, New York, Texas, France, Belgium, Luxembourg, Czech Republic, Japan, China, Qatar, Pakistan, Romania, Saint Lucia and Cyprus.

Claire regularly writes and speaks on arbitration-related subjects, including the use of technology and AI in arbitral proceedings, arbitrating technology disputes, cybersecurity in international arbitration and the preservation of trade secrets. She is also a board member of the Silicon Valley Arbitration and Mediation Center (SVAMC) and a co-founder of the Global Arbitration Review’s award winning initiative ‘Mute Off Thursdays’. She also sits on the ICC Taskforce on the use of Information Technology in arbitral proceedings, on the IBA Arbitration Committee Taskforce on Privilege and on the Advisory Board of CyberArb.

Shai heads our International Arbitration department, specialising in large-scale complex arbitration disputes in key industries such as, oil and gas, energy, natural resources, commodities, media and telecoms, construction, insurance and retail. He regularly advises on investor-state disputes.

"I sit as an arbitrator and serve as counsel in arbitrations decided under the major arbitral rules, heard in different jurisdictions and applying different substantive laws."

"I have spent my entire career in the international arbitration world.  As a young lawyer I served as a staff attorney to the Claims Resolution Tribunal for dormant accounts in Switzerland and later I drafted the arbitration rules for the appeals process of the International Commission on Holocaust Era Insurance Claims.  I am the co-author of the principal textbook commentary on LCIA Arbitration, and I am honoured to have been recognised as a leading international arbitration lawyer by my colleagues and by the best known legal directories.

I sit as an arbitrator and serve as counsel in arbitrations decided under the major arbitral rules, many different laws in jurisdictions across the globe

Clients trust me with repeated instructions because they know that I am an excellent strategist who will work tirelessly for them, to secure the best possible outcome."

‘Shai Wade is a superstar! A brilliant lawyer with exceptional knowledge and understanding of international arbitration in various industries.’- Legal500 2025

Elizabeth Weeks is a Partner in our Dispute Resolution team, and ranked as a Next Generation Partner in Legal 500 2025.

Elizabeth has extensive experience acting on a wide range of complex, high-value, multi-jurisdictional commercial dispute resolution matters, including litigation, arbitration, and adjudication. She acts in proceedings brought in various divisions of the High Court together with appellate proceedings in the Court of Appeal and the Supreme Court. Elizabeth acts and advises in proceedings governed by various arbitral institutional rules including the ICC, LCIA, LMAA and CIArb.

Elizabeth acts on matters relating to contractual disputes, commercial fraud, breach of fiduciary duty, asset recovery, jurisdiction challenges, enforcement of foreign Judgments, company, shareholder, partnership and family business disputes and professional negligence disputes. Her work often involves urgent Court applications and the application of foreign law.

Elizabeth’s private wealth experience has also seen her acting for clients in the arts and luxury assets sector.

Elizabeth acts for a variety of private and public sector clients on a full range of contentious and non-contentious construction matters from advice on procurement methods and the negotiation of construction contracts through to dispute avoidance and resolution.

Elizabeth is a member of the LSLA, the Society of Construction Law and The Association of Women in the Arts