As part of the arbitration community’s efforts to maintain the ICC International Court of Arbitration in Paris, Paris Place d’Arbitrage/Paris, the Home of International Arbitration set up a working group under the leadership of Elie Kleiman, Pascal Durand-Barthez and Philippe Boivin to prepare a report on the volume of international arbitration work in Paris and its economic contribution to the City.

After a thorough survey of practitioners, and with the help of a group of academics and the active support of the Chairman and the Secretary-General of the ICC International Court of Arbitration, the Working Group produced a report which is now available on the website of Paris Place d’Arbitrage/Paris, the Home of International Arbitration.  The report can be viewed by clicking on the “download” icon, above.

The Working Group concluded that the annual turnover attributable to arbitraton work (both as counsel and as arbitrator) by law firms present in Paris exceeded €200 million, and that these firms employed over 500 professionals in their arbitration practices. The presence of the ICC International Court of Arbitration in Paris was a critical element in attracting that work to Paris.

The Working Group’s Report was presented to French Government officials and to the Secretary-General of the ICC last autumn as part of a broader mobilization by the international arbitratoin bar in Paris to emphasise to the City of Paris, to the French government and to the Executive Board of the ICC the economic importance of arbitration to the French economy.

Paris, Place d’Arbitrage/Paris, the Home of International Arbitration had a number of meetings with Mr. Michel Prada, whom the French government had commissioned to address the issue of the ICC’s and the ICC International Court of Arbitration’s continuing presence in Paris. It also met with the Director of the Agence Française des Investissements Internationaux and with the Mayor of Paris.

It can now be said that our efforts have been successful. There is very good reason to believe that the ICC and the ICC International Court of Arbitration will be staying in Paris.

Paris Place d’Arbitrage/Paris, the Home of International Arbitration is proud to have contributed to the successful efforts of the Paris arbitration community to that effect.

The continuing presence of the ICC will help maintain Paris’ position as the world’s leading arbitration venue, as illustrated by the ICC’s statistics.  Those statistics show, for example, that Paris was selected in 2009 as the seat of an ICC arbitration 113 times, the second most popular venue being London with 73 selections.