Professional ethics in online dispute resolution systems

Judge Rachel Theora McGuckian is an officer of the International Bar Association’s Professional Ethics Committee and has presented on legal ethics issues at conferences in North America, Europe, South America, Asia and Africa. She graduated from the Johns Hopkins University, the University of Baltimore School of Law, magna cum laude, and served as judicial law clerk to the Honorable Deborah K. Chasanow of the United States District Court for Maryland, Southern Division. Prior to being appointed to the Circuit Court for Montgomery County, Maryland (USA) in 2022, Judge McGuckian spent 29 years in private practice, including the past 25 with Miles & Stockbridge, representing businesses including public companies, financial institutions, real estate developers, government contractors and family enterprises, and individual clients in divorce, custody, real estate, tax and contested estate litigation. Judge McGuckian also represented indigent individuals in criminal cases. She served on the Maryland State Board of Elections (2009-2014) and the Maryland State Ethics Commission (2014-2015). Judge McGuckian received the highest honors available to a trial lawyer in North America upon her election to the American College of Trial Lawyers, a select group limited to the top 1% of the lawyers in each state. She was named by her peers as a “Super Lawyer” every year since 2009, and repeatedly named one of the Top 100 Super Lawyers in Maryland and in Washington, D.C., one of the Top 50 Women Super Lawyers, one of the Best Lawyers in America, and to Bethesda Magazine’s Top Attorneys List. Judge McGuckian is an adjunct professor at the University of Baltimore School of Law and has served as a faculty member at the National Institute of Trial Advocacy’s Georgetown University Law Center program for two decades.

Federico Antich has been practicing Law in Italy since 1997, being licensed to practice throughout the Country and before Italy’s Supreme Court. He is based in Firenze where assists foreign clients in Italy and Italians with interests abroad in both judicial and extrajudicial matters. His main fields of practice (both domestic and international) are: litigation and alternative dispute resolution, debit collections, contracts, intellectual property, bankruptcy. He has also been employed as a Translator and Interpreter English – Italian during court proceedings. Mr. Antich mediated more than 5.000 cases, under the rules of different Institutions, with an average success rate above 80%. Several of them had an International character.

Hin Han is a Hong Kong qualified lawyer and Solicitor Advocate practicing in the telecommunications, media and technology group at a international law firm. Hin Han Shum has experience in mergers and acquisitions, setting up company start-ups, and company restructuring. Keeping abreast of technological developments, she has given practical solutions to clients in relation to cybersecurity, data collection and data breach matters, and has advised clients on legal compliance relating to new technological tools contemplated by clients in their bid to build their businesses. Having served as a legal representative in various litigation proceedings and being an accredited general mediator, Hin Han is familiar with the common fundamental issues leading to disputes and often assists to curb risks of those at the onset during the contract preparation stage. She has been seconded to an international securities firm and an international telecommunications company, to assist their in-house legal teams with each company’s day-to-day operations and major legal transactions and cases. These experiences have allowed her to further develop a pragmatic commercial approach to solve issues that arise in business operations. Hin Han also has experience with handling a range of criminal cases, including white collar criminal cases, both as a legal representative to defendants and to clients in reporting cases to authorities. She is also on the panel as a prosecutor on fiat for the Department of Justice. Hin Han is currently an Officer of the International Bar Association (IBA) Membership Officer of the IBA Young Lawyer’s Committee. She was formerly the Young Lawyer Liaison Office of the IBA Professional Ethics Committee and IBA Online Services Committee,. She is a Chairman of the Appeals Tribunal (Buildings) and she also serves as a member on the Standing Committee on External Affairs, Anti-Money Laundering Committee, Arbitration Committee and Mediation Committee of the Law Society of Hong Kong. She publishes widely on topics including data privacy, technology related issues, anti-money laundering rules, and labour and discrimination matters. She has also authored data privacy practical guidance content for LexisNexis, and has contributed to the Annotated Ordinances of Hong Kong, and to the Butterworths Hong Kong Partnership Handbook. She has been a speaker at international conferences and risk management tutor on topics such as data privacy and blockchain, artificial intelligence and cybersecurity risks. She also serves as a member on the Standing Committee on External Affairs, Anti-Money Laundering Committee, Arbitration Committee, and Mediation Committee of the Law Society of Hong Kong.

Dr. Leah Wing is Director of the National Center for Technology and Dispute Resolution (NCTDR) and Senior Lecturer II, Legal Studies Program, Department of Political Science, University of Massachusetts Amherst, USA. Leah is co-founder and Board President of the International Council for Online Dispute Resolution where she chairs the ODR Standards Committee. She heads the Ethical Principles for Online Dispute Resolution initiative of NCTDR and serves on the American Bar Association Dispute Resolution Section Online Dispute Resolution Standards Taskforce and the ABA Committee on Technology and Dispute Resolution. Leah has taught dispute resolution since 1993 and has served as a researcher on early experiments in online dispute resolution. Her present research projects focus on ethics and ODR, crowdsourcing and spatial justice, and technological responses to digital harm doing. Leah serves on the editorial boards of the International Journal of Online Dispute Resolution and Conflict Resolution Quarterly, has served two terms on the Association of Conflict Resolution Board of Directors, and is on the advisory board of ODREurope. A mediation trainer and consultant, Leah has worked with hundreds of agencies and organizations both in the U.S. and internationally.

Alipak heads the International Dispute Resolution practice at Nishith Desai Associates, in New Delhi. He advises and represents clients in a wide range of legal issues, with a special focus on cross-border and complex litigation, international commercial and investment treaty arbitration. He has experience in representing clients in institutional arbitrations (SIAC, LCIA, ICC), ad hoc arbitrations and litigation proceedings before the Supreme Court of India, Delhi High Court, various other forums in India. He has advised and represented clients engaged in technology, cryptocurrency and blockchain, oil and gas, media & entertainment, manufacturing, funds and financial services sectors. He has been appointed as the Diversity and Inclusion Officer in the Professional Ethics Committee, International Bar Association (2023-2024); he is also the Co-Chair of the Steering Committee at Young MCIA (2023-2025). He was appointed as the national rapporteur for the International Bar Association (IBA) Toolkit on International Arbitration and Insolvency (2021, 2023), by the IBA Insolvency and International Arbitration Group. He is ranked by Who’s Who Legal Arbitration Rankings 2024 - Future Leaders (Partners); Benchmark Litigation 2022, 2023, 2024 as the Future Star (Arbitration); Chambers and Partners Asia Pacific 2023 – White Collar and Investigations; Asia Law 2022, 2023 as Rising Star (Dispute Resolution); Recommended Lawyer in the Legal 500 Asia Pacific Ranking 2023.