ArbitralWomen members Dr. Ilka Beimel, Mihaela Apostol, and Svetlana Portman have created Lawyering Plus, effective February 2024. Lawyering Plus is an organization that aims at enhancing lawyers’ soft skills by providing valuable practical advice and tips through a series of short webinar presentations with experienced and well-regarded legal practitioners. Acknowledging that training on soft skills is scarce or its importance is often overlooked, the organization’s goal is to assist lawyers in developing key soft skills and improving their “lawyering” abilities. Each webinar is one episode within a season and will feature an expert giving a brief presentation on a particular soft skill, followed by a Q&A session. The online webinars will be recorded and later made available for a greater audience on our YouTube channel. The first season focuses on Communication Skills and commences with an episode on “Communicating with Clients”. The second episode in May will focus on “Communication inside the Law Firm”.
Dr. Ilka Beimel is German qualified lawyer and an associate at Noerr in Dusseldorf. She advises and represents clients in complex cross-border disputes, including corporate, liability and commercial disputes. Prior to joining Noerr, Ilka worked as a tribunal secretary in different arbitral proceedings. In this role and as a party representative, she gained experience in arbitration proceedings governed by DIS, CAM-CCBC, ICC, LCIA and VIAC Rules. Ilka holds a PhD in international commercial arbitration from the University of Basel (Switzerland) and was Rapporteur for the CISG Advisory Council.
Mihaela Apostol is a civil and common law qualified lawyer with ten years of experience in international arbitration. She is an Avocat of the Bar of Bucharest, Romania and a Solicitor of the Supreme Court of England and Wales. Mihaela has an all-round experience in international arbitration having worked as counsel, tribunal secretary and arbitrator in investment and commercial arbitration cases covering construction, tech, intellectual property, energy and oil & gas. She is also a co-founder of ArbTech.
Svetlana Portman is an associate in the International Dispute Resolution Group of Debevoise & Plimpton. She represents private clients and states across multiple jurisdictions in investor-state and international commercial arbitrations governed by various substantive laws and conducted under the auspices of the major arbitral rules, including ICSID, LCIA, ICC and UNCITRAL. She is admitted as a solicitor-advocate in England & Wales and to the bars of New York State and Israel.