Brian opens with a sit-down interview featuring Kevin Nash, the LCIA’s new Director-General, for an inside look at where the institution, and London as a seat, are heading. Kevin shares his roadmap for updating the LCIA Rules, harnessing technology, and broadening the caseload beyond its traditional strongholds, while reflecting on why he believes London remains arbitration’s global crossroads [TIME 07:22]. In Happy Fun Time, Brian and Sadia park the pleadings and talk real life. How to keep friendships, partners, and family thriving when your calendar is packed with filings, flights, and frantic hearing prep? From setting boundaries to small rituals that signal you’re truly off-duty, they offer candid, battle-tested tips for cultivating “life beyond the hearings” [TIME 32:47].

No Happy Fun Time this week, just a deep-dive. Brian sits down with Dimitriy Mednikov, an international-arbitration specialist at Habib Al Mulla & Partners in Dubai, together they decode the UAE’s three-tier system: on-shore courts, the DIFC, and the ADGM [TIME 01:56]. Expect candid takes on why the DIFC often serves as a “conduit” for enforcing foreign awards and on how ADGM’s wholesale adoption of English statutes (contrasted with the DIFC’s more hybrid approach) informs counsel strategy.

Brian and Sadia kick things off with Ayse Yazır ACII of Bench Walk Advisors for a beginner-friendly masterclass on third-party funding: what it is, why you might want it, and how to land it without losing control of your case [TIME 07:57]. In Happy Fun Time, the co-hosts turn a critical eye to The Economist’s “Conference Survival Handbook,” separating smart advice from questionable hacks and sharing their own battle-tested tips for thriving on the arbitration-conference circuit [TIME 44:41].

Brian kicks things off by welcoming David Hunt of Boies Schiller Flexner to unpack the ever-spicier topic of anti-suit injunctions, using the UK Supreme Court’s decision in UniCredit Bank GmbH v RusChemAlliance LLC as a springboard [TIME 13:18]. They explore how the case intersects with the proposed revisions to the Arbitration Act 1996, revisit Enka v Chubb, and debate whether the English courts’ approach is evolving. If anti-suit injunctions and jurisdictional gateways are your thing, this one’s for you.

For Happy Fun Time, Sadia is joined once again by arbitration-lawyer-turned-productivity-guru, coach Jon Passaro [TIME 39:52]. Jon breaks down how a business plan can keep a career on track, sharing a examples listeners can use for their own practice.

In our season opener, Sadia welcomes back Professor Loukas Mistelis, a senior international‑arbitration partner at Clyde & Co, professor of transnational dispute resolution at Queen Mary University of London, and newly appointed co‑chair of London International Disputes Week (LIDW), to talk about how this year’s programme was designed, the thinking behind its themes, and the innovative approaches shaping one of the world’s leading legal events [TIME 05:39].

We are back!

In this festive special episode, Brian and Joel welcome a notable guest, Hon. Charles N. Brower, to their book club gathering [TIME 05:12]. The episode centers around Judge Brower’s memoir, "Judging Iran: A Memoir of the Hague, the White House, and Life on the Front Line of International Justice." The hosts engage in a deep dive into the Judge's rich experiences and perspectives, exploring his significant journey through various international legal spheres.

Saadia is back! To welcome her back, Brian discusses the relatively recent UK Supreme Court judgement that has caused a shake-up for third-party funders [TIME 02:52]. But are the consequences as far reaching as originally expected? For HFT, Brian and Saadia discuss the "who, what, when and why" for requesting extensions in arbitration [TIME 20:26].

We are happy to welcome Joel back into your ears - albeit briefly - for another great episode. Brian interviews Mark Tushingham from Twenty Essex about two simultaneous decisions handed down by the UK Supreme Court and Privy Council grappling with the interpretation of Section 9 of the Arbitration Act [TIME 04:40]. For HFT, we welcome back Jon Passaro who will coach us on how to invest time now to save time in the future [TIME 28:04].

In this episode, Brian and Jan delve into the nuances of early dismissal applications in international arbitration. They discuss the ethical and strategic considerations that emerge from such applications [TIME 03:05]. During the Happy Fun Time segment, Brian offers his insights on conditional fee arrangements and explores other innovative fee arrangement types between arbitration lawyers and their clients [TIME 20:00].