June 30th, 2021 (Lahore, Pakistan): The ADR Initiative and Women in Law Initiative Pakistan jointly held a ‘meet and greet’ session for female lawyers/students interested in Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) on Saturday, 26th June 2021.
In-house experts and team of ADR gave a brief overview of what ADR practice entails and drew comparisons with litigation from a practitioner’s point of view.
Barrister Aneesa Agha, Lead Expert from Women in Law and partner at RMA & Co spoke about the enforcement of foreign arbitral awards in Pakistan and also shed light on prospects for female practitioners in the field.
Nehan Zehra, our in-house expert and Associate at RMA & Co walked the participants through the steps and process involved in an Arbitration.
Advocate Aminah Qadir who has extensive experience representing clients in international arbitrations at forums such as LCIA and ICSID clarified that the ADR we are addressing here is for those who are interested in commercial or corporate practice and drew distinctions with work on human rights and public interest which is very different from the kind of cases and work involved in ADR in Pakistan in commercial sphere.
Mehak Bari and Akbar Hussain, founders of ADR Initiative spoke about the role and space that ADR initiative is creating in Pakistan for ADR. They also highlighted the nature of their work, their upcoming workshops and programmes with global outreach, particularly, their work on developing ODR framework and rules in consultation with around 36 consultants from all over the world. Mehak also spoke about their elaborate internship programme and what opportunities it entailed for students.
The Session was moderated by Nida Usman Chaudhary, founder of Women in Law Initiative, and attended by over 22 participants from across Pakistan, including, KP, Balochistan, Islamabad, Bahawalnagar, Lahore, Karachi.
Dr. Nudrat Piracha, who is herself a very a distinguished member and practitioner working in ADR internationally, also joined the session and shared her experience with the participants.
The session marked the launch of ‘Women in ADR Network’ – a joint plan of action of the ADR initiative and the Women in Law Initiative to facilitate and support female lawyers and students interested in ADR.
Those female lawyers/students who may have missed the session but are interested to join the Women in ADR network are requested to share their:
- names,
- designation,
- qualifications,
- university/firm/institution,
- city,
- email id, and
- contact number
at womeninlaw@learnpak.com.pk with the title ‘Application for Women in ADR Network’ in subject line.
Image by 3D Animation Production Company from Pixabay