Catherine Dixon reflects on the highlights of 2021

In the past year, I am proud that our global ADR profession has continued to adapt and innovate in response to extraordinary circumstances.

The pandemic, intense focus on sustainability, the progress of technology and importance of equality, diversity and inclusion has encouraged, and forced, us to challenge ourselves on how we deliver arbitration, adjudication and mediation in the best interests of our clients and justice.

CIArb continues to work hard to support you. We represented the ADR profession in multiple jurisdictions with government and other key stakeholders, and also intervened in high-profile cases ensuring courts can make informed decisions in the best interests of ADR. We are committed to offering opportunities for career development and networking and, of course, providing globally recognised education and training. 

Our global ADR community grew in 2021. CIArb’s membership increased to over 17,000 professional members and over 10,000 Student members across 42 branches. Despite a challenging year, we trained over 5,000 people globally, made more appointments through our Dispute Appointment Scheme and became the sole provider of Arbitration Referral Services for the Pubs Code Adjudicator (PCA).

See what else we delivered to support our global membership during 2021: