Award or Accord: Negotiation for Arbitration Advocates

Negotiation is a critical skill for arbitration advocates. Join Young ICCA and CEIA-40 for a one-of-a-kind in-person negotiation workshop for international arbitration lawyers. In this workshop, participants will hear from leading experts on how to bridge cross-cultural divides and find common ground during intractable disputes. This is an interactive workshop that will go beyond the theory and practice of negotiations and give participants an opportunity to conduct negotiations first hand based on a live case scenario.

Topics will include:
 

• What is interest-based negotiation and why it works
• The importance of anchoring during competitive bargaining
• How to identify and create value in resolving a dispute

Speakers:

• Christopher Tahbaz, Debevoise & Plimpton LLP
• Ndanga Kamau, Ndanga Kamau Law
• Ning Fei, Hui Zhong
• Eva Chan, Skadden Arps
• Gustavo Kulesza, BMA
• Katrine Tvede, Ashurst

Please note that this event has a capacity of 100 participants.

Post-event report YICCA Madrid Workshop

Report prepared by Santiago Rodriguez (Senior Associate, Arias SLP; Adjunct Professor, IE Law School)

On 15 April 2026, Young ICCA hosted an interactive workshop on Navigating Cultural Differences and the Art of Negotiation in International Arbitration. The session brought together practitioners from different jurisdictions and legal traditions to discuss how culture shapes dispute strategy, party interaction, settlement dynamics, and advocacy in international arbitration.

The event opened with remarks from Jadranka Jakovcic (Young ICCA Events Co-Director) and was structured in two parts: a moderated panel discussion featuring senior practitioners sharing insights and war stories about negotiations from their careers, followed by an interactive workshop in which the audience engaged in a negotiation exercise.

Part I: Panel Discussion

The panel brought together an outstanding group of practitioners with experience working across borders, legal traditions and cultures:

• Christopher Tahbaz — Debevoise & Plimpton.
• Ndanga Kamau — Ndanga Kamau Law.
• Ning Fei — Hui Zhing Law Firm.
• Pablo Torres — A&O Shearman.

The panel was moderated by the Young ICCA Co-Chairs, Gustavo Kulesza and Katrine Tvede.

The panel discussed the importance of cultural awareness when it comes to negotiating in modern arbitration practice. Speakers emphasised that international arbitration is inherently cross-border and multilingual, requiring practitioners to navigate cultural dynamics closely linked to legal strategy, case management, and settlement discussions. Each panellist then shared examples from their own practice in which cultural differences had materially influenced the course of a negotiation.

Part II: Negotiation Workshop

The second part of the event moved from observation to action. Eva Chan (Young ICCA Co-Chair) and Nicholas Lee (Young ICCA Events Co-Director) led a negotiation workshop in which the audience was introduced to the fundamentals of successful negotiation and given the opportunity to put those principles into practice.

The session opened with a theoretical introduction to the principles of effective negotiation. The speakers outlined the four pillars of the Harvard negotiation methodology, explained the distinction between positions and interests, and addressed the differences between argumentation and persuasion.

The workshop concluded with an interactive negotiation exercise. Participants applied the principles discussed during the session in a live simulation based on a real solar energy dispute. The exercise offered participants the opportunity to test interest-based negotiation techniques in a realistic commercial setting.