What does business development mean for an international arbitration lawyer?
Business development for international arbitration lawyers means three things: choosing which disputes the practice wants, being known to the people who will choose counsel for them, and reaching those people before the choice is made. The market is busy. ICSID registered 63 new cases in 2025, its second-highest year on record, and UNCTAD counted 1,463 known treaty cases by the end of that year.
None of that work arrives by itself. Our guide to investment treaty arbitration covers the law; this piece is about getting instructed.
How do companies choose international arbitration counsel?
Mostly on experience and personal trust. The best data is old but still useful: the 2013 Queen Mary and PwC survey asked 101 corporate counsel in energy, construction and financial services what drove their choice. It was not about treaty claims specifically.
- 93% rated past experience of the firm or lawyer in contentious matters important, and 88% personal knowledge of the lawyer.
- 63% counted recommendations from other counsel, while only 31% cared about league-table rankings.
- 67% had a panel of preferred firms, but around a third used it only sometimes or infrequently for arbitrations.
Two lessons follow. Directory rankings do less than partners hope. And a panel is not a wall; a firm that brings the right analysis early can still get the call.
Where does new international arbitration work come from?
Four places, in rough order of how familiar they are. Existing clients who run into trouble abroad. Referrals from transactional colleagues and correspondent firms. Relationships built at conferences and in print. And new disputes that start with a government measure against a foreign investor, before any lawyer has been asked.
The last one is the hardest to plan and the most open. A cancelled licence or a retroactive tax is public the day it happens, but it is reported locally, often not in English, and rarely mentions a treaty. Our guide on how to source international arbitration leads goes through each channel and what it misses.
How do you build a pipeline of arbitration leads?
Treat it as a weekly routine, not a campaign.
- Pick the sectors and regions the practice wants. In ICSID's 2025 caseload, mining was 24% of new cases, oil and gas 21% and construction 16%.
- Watch new government measures in those places every day.
- Qualify the promising ones each week: protected investor, applicable treaty, time on the clock, money at stake, a state that can pay.
- Give each lead one owner and log a decision: pursue, watch or drop.
The clock matters more than people expect. About 90% of bilateral investment treaties have a cooling-off period, most often six months, and the investor picks its team inside it. Our page on early warning of investment treaty disputes covers the monitoring side.
What makes thought leadership win work?
Being specific and early. A note on a ministry's new export ban, published the week it happens, with the treaty questions it raises, does more than another commentary on an award everyone has already read. General counsel remember the lawyer who explained their problem before they had a name for it.
It has limits. Writing about a live measure is fine; contacting the affected company is regulated, and the rules differ by jurisdiction. Our sourcing guide summarises the main ones, and your own bar rules govern.
How should partners and business development staff split the work?
Business development runs the routine: the watchlist of sectors and countries, the pipeline, the reminders, the CRM. Associates qualify leads and draft the treaty analysis. Partners make the judgement calls and own every client conversation.
We think the common failure is the opposite split, where partners hunt for leads in spare moments and nobody owns the follow-up. A lead with no owner is gone by the next week.
What this means for practice
Most arbitration work is still won on reputation. What the best practices add is a habit: they see disputes coming, decide quickly which ones matter, and are ready when the investor starts asking around.
DSPT Finder is an AI tool that sources international arbitration leads. It finds investment treaty disputes before they are filed, from news, government publications and company disclosures in 32 languages, and the judgement stays with your lawyers. Our page on business development for international arbitration practices shows how teams use it.
For the signals themselves, see how to detect investment treaty disputes early; for the market shift behind all this, how arbitration lawyers are sourcing disputes earlier.
Frequently asked questions
What is business development in international arbitration?
It is the work of winning arbitration mandates: choosing the disputes a practice wants, building trust with the general counsel who choose lawyers, and reaching them before they instruct someone else, usually well before any claim is filed.
How do arbitration lawyers win new mandates?
Mostly through track record and personal trust. In a 2013 Queen Mary and PwC survey of 101 corporate counsel, 93% rated past contentious experience important and 88% personal knowledge of the lawyer. Reaching a client early helps on top of that.
Do preferred-firm panels decide who gets arbitration work?
Less than you might think. In the 2013 Queen Mary and PwC survey, 67% of companies had a panel, but around a third used it only sometimes or infrequently when appointing counsel for arbitrations.
Is arbitration expertise or sector knowledge more important to clients?
Slightly more clients value process expertise. In the 2013 Queen Mary and PwC survey, 55% preferred expertise in the arbitral process and 45% industry specialism, though construction respondents put industry knowledge first.
Which tools help with arbitration business development?
A CRM tracks relationships. To find new disputes early, practices use signal-based monitoring such as DSPT Finder, which surfaces government measures against foreign investors before a claim is filed.