Beata Gessel-Kalinowska vel Kalisz has been awarded the title of Honorary President of the Lewiatan Court of Arbitration

As of 4 April 2017, Dr Gessel has stepped down from the role of President of the Lewiatan Court of Arbitration, which appointed her its Honorary President on the same day.

Beata Gessel has served as President of the Lewiatan Court since 2011 (and, previously, as its Vice President).

In her role as Lewiatan Court President, Beata Gessel concentrated on promoting Poland as a centre of international arbitration. On her watch, the court has been involved in various activities, including training programmes for counsel, in-house lawyers and arbitrators organized in cooperation with the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators (CIArb) and bilateral seminars with the Austrian Arbitration Association (ArbAut). Dr Gessel also initiated, and continues to chair, the largest conference on international arbitration in Central and Eastern Europe – “Dispute Resolution in M&A Transactions”, which is now a biannual event whose successive iterations assemble in Poland 250 arbitration experts and specialists from all over the world. The conference has been supported by numerous international arbitration centres, including ICC, AAA/ICDR, DIS, VIAC, SIAC as well as ArbitralWomen, UBA and ABA. The 4th edition of the conference will be held in Warsaw on 18-19 May this year.

Under Beata Gessel’s leadership, in 2012 the Lewiatan Court, as the first tribunal in Poland, introduced Expedited Procedure Rules as well as a 6 months’ time limit for rendering the award. All these undertakings are reflected in the Chambers Global notion that she “has brought Poland onto the international arbitration scene”.

Dr Gessel’s decision to step down as President of the Lewiatan Court is motivated by her desire to concentrate more on her growing arbitration practice at GESSEL as well as on her academic activity.

The role of the Lewiatan Court President will be taken over by Przemysław Schmidt, a member of the court’s Arbitration Committee since 2014.