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A&O’s Lucia Raimanova Part of First All-Woman Arbitral Tribunal at VIAC

A&O’s Lucia Raimanova Part of First All-Woman Arbitral Tribunal at VIAC

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Allen & Overy's Lucia Raimanova has been selected to form part of the first ever all-woman arbitral tribunal at the Vienna International Arbitration Centre.

The VIAC is an international arbitration  institution with a particular stronghold in Central and Eastern Europe, but it also attracts parties from further afield, notably Africa and Oceania. The organization's recently-released annual report shows that it began 43 new international arbitration and mediation cases in 2017 — and reports the formation of its first all-female tribunal.  

Raimanova, a Counsel in Allen & Overy’s International Arbitration Group who relocated to Bratislava from London in June 2016 to lead the firm’s international arbitration practice within CEE, was nominated by the VIAC Board to the three-member panel on behalf of the respondent.  She and her co-arbitrator then agreed on the Chair of the Tribunal. 

Raimanova commented: “Like many sectors, international arbitration struggles with retaining female talent in leading roles. Securing gender equality in arbitrator appointments is no easy task. There is still an insufficient pool of experienced female arbitrators and it does not help that arbitrators are often associated with an image of white-haired men. In this case, my co-arbitrator and I made sure we had an equally qualified male candidate for the role of the Chairman of the Tribunal but, as luck would have it, we ended up with a female candidate who is doing a wonderful job as Chairwoman.”