Where does new investment arbitration work come from?
Mostly from people. A general counsel rings a partner they trust, a correspondent firm makes a referral, someone mentions a problem over dinner during an arbitration week. None of that is going away. But the weakness is timing. Once a dispute is common knowledge, the investor has usually spoken to a few firms already and may have picked one.
The window before that is real. Spain scrapped its fixed feed-in tariff for renewables in July 2013, and the first Energy Charter Treaty claim over it was registered at ICSID that December, about five months later. In Tanzania the gap was longer. Mining retention licences were cancelled in January 2018 and the claim over the Ntaka Hill nickel project came roughly two years after. Somewhere in that stretch, the investor chooses counsel.
Treaties add a waiting period of their own. Roughly nine in ten bilateral investment treaties require a cooling-off period after the investor's first written notice, most often six months. A firm that learns about a dispute when the case is registered has missed all of it.
What does DSPT Finder give a business development team?
Every day it picks out the government actions that tend to turn into investor-state claims, such as licence revocations, expropriations, windfall taxes and cancelled contracts. It reads more than 2,100 sources in 32 languages across 159+ countries, then narrows the results down to the few worth your time.
- A short list of scored leads, updated several times a day and summarised in a daily email brief.
- The full story behind each lead: what happened, which foreign investors are affected and which treaties might apply.
- A first view of how strong a claim could be, rated on jurisdiction, merits, amount at stake and collectability, with the reasoning shown.
- Help finding the right person to contact at the affected company.
- A shared pipeline, so the team can see which leads are being worked, by whom, and where each one stands.
It is a research aid. It won't tell you whether to pitch, and it can misjudge how strong a case looks. That call stays with the lawyers.
How do arbitration teams use it day to day?
One simple way to run it: a partner reads the morning brief and flags a handful of items. An associate opens those, reads the background and writes a short note on whether the firm has a reason to get in touch. Business development keeps the pipeline current, so nobody approaches the same company twice.
Country desks and sector groups can narrow the same feed to their own patch, say mining in Central Asia or power in Latin America. The brief then reads like it was written for that desk.
Who is it for?
Claimant-side practices that bring ICSID and UNCITRAL treaty claims are the core users, together with the business development and marketing people who support them. Litigation funders use it to see treaty claims early, and risk teams use the same alerts as early warning of investment treaty disputes.
It is not a lead-generation agency. You don't buy a list of contacts. Your team gets software that finds disputes, and your lawyers decide which ones to pursue.
Frequently asked questions
Is DSPT Finder a lead-generation agency?
No. It is software your team uses. The leads are disputes found in the news and in public sources, not contact lists, and your lawyers decide which ones to pursue.
How early does it find a dispute?
Often at the first public sign, such as a decree, a licence cancellation or a tax change, which can be months before any claim is filed. How early depends on when the measure is first reported, sometimes only in the local press.
Which countries and sectors does it cover?
More than 159 countries in 32 languages, across mining, oil and gas, energy, renewables, infrastructure, telecoms, finance and the other sectors where foreign investment meets government action.
How can we try it?
Ask for 10 free leads chosen for your practice, or book a demo with the team.