Y-ADR Speed Mentoring
Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe (UK) LLP
107 CheapsideLondon, England EC2V 6DN
United Kingdom
Event Details
Calling All Young* ADR Practitioners!
Join the Young Leaders in Alternative Dispute Resolution (Y-ADR) Steering Committee for a “Speed Mentoring” event on May 20th 6 PM to 8 PM UK Time.
Following on two years of our popular "Speed Mentoring" series online, we are pleased to present an in-person edition for practitioners in the London area!
Program: Y-ADR Speed Mentoring, London edition
Date: May 20, 2025
Time: 6:00-8:00 pm
Location: Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe (UK) LLP, 107 Cheapside, City of London, London EC2V 6DN, United Kingdom
Format: This is a free in-person event, open to CPR members and the public, to be held at Orrick office in London
Networking cocktail reception to follow!
*For young professionals. Young is defined as 45 years old and younger, or those with less than 8 years of professional experience in international or domestic ADR practice or other areas of conflict prevention and resolution. Law students are also welcome to attend this event.
In this engaging and interactive mentoring and skills-building program, attendees will:
- Hear from several experienced mid- to senior-level ADR practitioners (in-house counsel, academics, private practitioners, and neutrals) who will share the practical professional and career advice they wish they had received when they were starting out their legal careers. See the list below.
- Have the opportunity to participate in a fast-paced and fun speed mentoring session with each experienced practitioner where you can ask them the candid questions you always wanted to have answered.
- Enjoy an opportunity to socialize with mentors and fellow attendees during a networking cocktail reception to close out the evening.
This program will feature the opportunity to connect with the following members of the Y-ADR Steering Committee who will serve as mentors during the speed mentoring sessions.
Stephanie Davies is the Head of Legal for Weapons and Advanced Products for Raytheon Systems Limited. Stephanie joined Raytheon in 2023. Stephanie is responsible for managing regulatory compliance, employment law, the implementation of policies and procedures and advising on litigation. Stephanie also operates as the UK company wide Legal SME for contract law providing specialist support to the Contracts and Supply Chain functions and global trade law providing specialist support to the Global Trade team.
Before joining Raytheon, Stephanie was the Head of Legal and Compliance at General Dynamics UK and was a key member of the team who drafted and negotiated the £5.5bn AJAX contract with the UK Ministry of Defence. Stephanie in her earlier years at General Dynamics headed up the Trade Compliance team and has strong experience in both US and UK trade and anti-corruption compliance.
Stephanie has a wealth of experience delivering legal and compliance training both in-house and externally at legal and compliance conferences. Stephanie holds a postgraduate diploma in legal practice from the University of Glamorgan and a bachelor’s degree in law and sociology from Cardiff University.
Sara is an associate based in Orrick's London and Paris offices. She was originally trained in the US and specializes in aviation, defense, energy & infrastructure and construction projects, both in commercial and investment arbitration. Sara represents clients across the United States, Europe and Asia and has experience handling disputes governed by French, Swiss, Iranian, and US (Maryland, New York, Washington, Illinois) law in most of the major arbitral forums, including the ICC, HKIAC, ICSID, and the Swiss Arbitration Centre. Before joining Orrick, Sara gained valuable experience working in the Emerging Companies department of another major international law firm in New York City. She also represented the City of New York in family court, prosecuting child abuse and neglect cases for two years.
Darren Pouliot is a Senior Associate in the International Arbitration group who brings a trial-oriented focus to his matters. Darren has significant experience in the preparation of cases for trial across jurisdictions and understands the importance of having a trial-ready mindset from the outset.
Darren is a dual-qualified American lawyer and solicitor-advocate of England and Wales. He has an established record of working closely with clients across the finance, commodities, energy, life sciences and technology industries on all stages of disputes.
He represents clients in international arbitral proceedings under the major arbitral institutions' rules, as well as in American federal and state courts. He also holds Higher Rights of Audience with the Senior Courts of England & Wales. Darren maintains an active pro bono practice with a focus on criminal, habeas, and constitutional cases on appeal.
Darren also has direct in-house experience, having undertaken secondment to the fast-paced litigation department of one of the world's largest investment banks. He worked closely with the in-house team to assess litigation risk, advise stakeholders, and manage ongoing global litigations. He now frequently works with clients to develop their dispute resolution terms, processes, and trainings for other in-house functions.
Prior to joining Orrick, Darren earned his Juris Doctorate from Columbia Law School where he led the Columbia Business Law Review as its Editor-in-Chief and extensively studied federal constitutional, administrative, and criminal law. While there, he was a judicial intern in multiple levels of the U.S. federal judiciary, including the Second Circuit Court of Appeals, the Southern District of New York, and the District of New Jersey.
Rutger is a senior associate and Solicitor Advocate in the international arbitration practice.
He specialises in international commercial and investment treaty arbitration and has acted in arbitrations under the LCIA, ICC, ICSID, UNCITRAL, WIPO and SIAC rules. Rutger is currently based in our London office, having also spent time on secondment with the international arbitration group in Hong Kong and in a disputes and corporate governance role at De Beers.
Rutger is an Associate Lecturer at Queen Mary University of London, where he teaches the module Strategic Decision Making for Lawyers in the LLM and Law & Finance programmes. He is also a member of our Decision Analysis team and has extensive experience building decision analysis models to help clients quantify, visualise and better understand the legal risks they are facing.
Rutger is a member of the Y-ADR Steering Committee of the International Institute for Conflict Prevention & Resolution (CPR).
Rutger holds an LLB (Honours) in International and European Law from the University of Groningen and an LLM (Distinction) in Comparative and International Dispute Resolution from Queen Mary University of London. He is a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators.
Velislava Hristova holds dual qualifications as an Attorney-at-law in Bulgaria and a Solicitor in England and Wales. She specialises in investor-State arbitration, complex commercial disputes, and public international law. With over eight years of post-qualification experience, Velislava brings a wealth of experience, having worked with the international arbitration teams of leading US law firms in three of the major arbitration hubs in Europe – London, Vienna and Stockholm – and two of the largest law firms in Bulgaria. She participated in disputes across a range of industries under various institutional rules and involving parties from Europe, Asia, and Africa. Velislava holds an LL.M. in International Commercial Arbitration Law from Stockholm University (Sweden) and an LL.M. from the University of National and World Economy (Bulgaria). Velislava specialised in Arbitration and International Commercial Law at Pace University (US) and attended the Paris Arbitration Academy (France), the ICC Summer course in International Arbitration organised by the International Chamber of Commerce (France) and the Advanced course on ICSID Arbitration organised by the International Investment Law Centre Cologne (Germany).
Velislava serves as a Vice-Chair of the International Arbitration Committee of the ABA’s International Law Section, Chair of Young Bulgarian Arbitration Practitioners, Senior Editor of the EFILA Blog, Peer Reviewer of the Journal of International Dispute Settlement and Founder of the Energy Related Arbitration Practitioners (Bulgaria). Velislava frequently publishes and speaks on international arbitration topics. In 2022, she won first place in the Young Practitioners and Scholars Essay Competition of the European Federation for Investment Law and Arbitration, and in 2023, she won the CPR Institute’s Outstanding Professional Short Article Award.
Register today for this unique opportunity!
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Open to the both members and non-members!
CPR members are asked to sign in to this website (see "login" above) and then register using the CPR Members ticket.
Stay tuned for another in-person edition of Y-ADR's popular Speed Mentoring series: New York (Fall 2025)!
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Thank you to our host!
