Arbitration Acumen

Hosted by J.P. Duffy, Arbitration Acumen is the definitive podcast from Bracewell’s international arbitration group, designed for in-house counsel and arbitration practitioners seeking authoritative insights. Each episode brings in-depth conversations with top arbitrators, institutional insiders and leading industry experts from around the world.

Arbitration Acumen is a business podcast hosted by Unknown Host, with 19 episodes on record and a Required Pod Score of 80.

Unknown Host hosts Arbitration Acumen, a business show with 19 episodes published.

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  Episode #19

  Inside HKIAC: 2025 Arbitration Trends and What Comes Next

  Sep 24, 202638 minS1

  The Hong Kong International Arbitration Centre (HKIAC) registered 582 new cases in 2025, representing $16.2 billion in dispute value and parties from 61 jurisdictions. What do those numbers reveal about the institution’s evolving global reach? In this episode of The Arbitration Acumen Podcast, J.P. Duffy, an international arbitration partner at Bracewell, sits down with HKIAC Secretary-General Joanne Lau to examine the institution’s 2025 caseload and priorities for 2026 and beyond. They discuss crypto, blockchain and technology disputes; arbitrator diversity; and the 2024 Administered Arbitration Rules. Joanne explains multiparty and multicontract proceedings, expedited procedures, and the Hong Kong-Mainland China Interim Measures Arrangement. The conversation also covers emergency arbitration, arbitrator hourly rates, international outreach efforts and Hong Kong’s arbitration law review.

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  Episode #18

  KCAB International’s New 2026 Arbitration Rules: Seoul’s Bid to Become Asia’s Next Arbitration Hub

  Sep 3, 202625 minS1

  Korean Commercial Arbitration Board (KCAB) International overhauled its arbitration rules in January 2026, revised cost structures, and updated fast track, expedited and early determine procedures. In this episode of The Arbitration Acumen Podcast, J.P. Duffy sits down with Pui-Ki Emmanuelle Ta, KCAB International’s secretary general to discuss these changes in detail. They unpack the new International Arbitration Court, modeled on the ICC's, the two-level process for scrutinizing every draft award, and the thresholds behind the new fast track, expedited and early determination procedures. Pui-Ki also covers third-party funding disclosure, a new cost structure, and KCAB International's Seoul hearing facilities, before looking ahead to a five-year vision of Seoul as Asia's third arbitration hub.

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  Episode #17

  Inside ICC Arbitration: Claudia Salomon on Record Caseloads, Gender Diversity Gains and the New 2026 Rules

  Aug 6, 202648 minS1

  The ICC International Court of Arbitration registered its record-breaking 30,000 th case in 2025, and the ICC’s new 2026 rules eliminate mandatory terms of reference for the first time in more than a century. In this episode of The Arbitration Acumen Podcast, J.P. Duffy, a partner in Bracewell’s international arbitration practice, sits down with Claudia Salomon, president of the ICC International Court of Arbitration, to unpack both the 2025 statistics and the new 2026 ICC rules. J.P. and Claudia last spoke together on a podcast about the 2021 ICC rule amendments. This conversation picks up where that one left off, from a record-breaking year of cases to a wave of rule changes reshaping how ICC arbitrations run. In this episode, they cover: 2025 Annual Statistics The Rise of “Domestic” ICC Arbitration Gender Diversity Among Arbitrators The New 2026 ICC Rules Claudia also looks ahead to the rest of her term, including a new ICC office opening in Africa and the search for her successor.

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  Episode #16

  Inside VIAC: Niamh Leinwather on International Arbitration, the VIACan Ambassador Network and Deepfake Evidence

  Jul 8, 202636 minS1

  In this episode of Arbitration Acumen, J.P. Duffy speaks with Niamh Leinwather, secretary general of the Vienna International Arbitral Centre (VIAC), an international arbitration institution based in Vienna, Austria. Niamh walks through VIAC's 2025 caseload data, the VIACan ambassador network's expansion across Central and Eastern Europe, VIAC's 2021 rules for smaller investor-state disputes, the transparency-versus-confidentiality debate over publishing arbitral awards, and a new think-tank protocol for spotting deepfakes in arbitration evidence. VIAC's 2025 docket totaled 69 cases, roughly 81 percent of them international, extending a trend that has held even as domestic arbitration slowly grows. The VIACan ambassador program, launched in February 2023, has grown into a network of 54 ambassadors across 39 countries. Niamh also touches on VIAC's plans to expand into India and China. VIAC's 2021 investment arbitration rules were designed to give small and medium-sized investors an affordable, efficient path for resolving lower-value investor-state disputes. Niamh also discusses how VIAC balances growing calls for transparency with parties' expectations of confidentiality when publishing anonymized awards and extracts, and previews a new protocol from VIAC's legal tech think tank to help arbitrators and counsel identify deepfakes and tampered digital evidence.

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  Episode #15

  The AAA at 100: AI, Online Dispute Resolution and the Next Century of Arbitration

  Jun 5, 202638 minS1

  <p>As the American Arbitration Association marks 100 years, it’s already betting its next century on AI and online dispute resolution.</p><p><br></p><p>In this episode of Arbitration Acumen, J.P. Duffy speaks with Bridget McCormack, president and CEO of the AAA-ICDR, about the organization’s centennial and what comes next. </p><p><br></p><p>Bridget discusses her transition from chief justice of the Michigan Supreme Court to leading one of the world’s most prominent arbitral institutions, the AAA-ICDR’s investment in online dispute resolution and mediation, and the organization’s use of AI tools to streaml...

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