Initiatives will make it possible to intensify the integration of young professionals from the ADR community in Brazil, stimulating the exchange of experiences 

By Sérgio Siscaro

Among its institutional activities, CAM-CCBC encourages the exchange of experiences between professionals in the area, as a means of disseminating alternative dispute resolution mechanisms (ADRs). One of these initiatives is the New Generation (NewGen), a group that brings together young people in order to assist in the development of the new generation of lawyers, arbitrators, mediators and those active in the ADR sector.

The group is led by young lawyers independently from the Center and already has several projects in progress. In order to intensify its reach (in addition to maintaining its activities during the quarantine period resulting from the new coronavirus), the group is launching the NewGen Blog and NewGen News, their newsletter.

The publication of the first newsletter edition is scheduled for the beginning of the second semester. It will contain the main news of the sector, comments on cases, schedule of events  and announcements of vacancies for ADR professionals.

The project is led by four NewGen members, who participated in a selection process promoted by the Steering Committee and will be editors of both the newsletter and the blog.

Post-graduated in Digital Law and Civil Procedure, Clara Santos was the founder of the Paraíba Study Center in ADR, in addition to being and intern at the ToledoMarchetti law firm in São Paulo. Ana Carolina Castro already had experience in editing the Mediation and Arbitration Magazine, and currently works at Mendes Advogados Associados, specialized in arbitration.

Raul A. Zaidan Filho is a Legal Assistant at Zaidan Advogados in Manaus, Amazonas and majoring in Law at the Federal University of Amazonas. Iván Fonseca Ramos, the fourth editor, is Peruvian, graduated from the Villareal de Lima University and is now in São Paulo for an extension course in arbitration by the Getúlio Vargas Foundation.

“Initially, the project focused on the regular publication of a newsletter. For it to work, it would be necessary to establish a news repository, so we suggested creating a NewGen blog in parallel, which can be a point of reference for young people who are interested in topics related to arbitration”, says Santos. “Everything that is included in the newsletter will be on the blog”, adds Castro.

The blog also opens the possibility of news that cover a longer period, and the most prominent ones will be included in the newsletter. With that, it will be more effective in the dissemination of ADRs: “In addition, we intend to invite NewGen members to also expose their points of view and share their experiences, which will help us to present a greater diversity of perspectives,” says Santos.

The first wave of news will address the Covid-19 pandemic and its effects on the ADR sector, but also topics such as comments on international cases and changes in arbitration competitions abroad.

The new ADR generation

“CAM-CCBC’s idea was to prevent [NewGen] from being a group just ‘for the sake of it’; it should effectively address the specific needs of that audience. With the entry of the Center’s new Presidency, the project accelerated with the idea of establishing a Steering Committee, which was formed in the middle of last year”, recapitulates one of the Committee members, Bernard Potsch Moura, partner of Batista Martins Advogados.

According to him, NewGen was established based on two main pillars: developing projects by always bringing members to lead them (as it is in the case of the blog and the newsletter); and constantly consulting with participants about their needs and expectations by using a form, the answers to which guided the group’s first activities.

Another aspect permeates the group’s work: regional integration. “We emerged as a youth association, but we have a mission to also function as a useful tool for the promotion of diversity – cultural, ethnic, regional, gender etc. – in the ADR community. The practice of ADRs is present in the Southeast and especially in the São Paulo-Rio de Janeiro axis, but it is still a little incipient outside of it – including in large commercial and industrial centers, where there is a lot of potential for the development of this sector. We want to create a space to integrate young professionals from other regions into the ADR community and consequently contribute to the evolution of the practice in these places”, says Committee member Luísa Quintão, an associate of Justen, Pereira, Oliveira & Talamini.

NewGen has several other projects underway. The second webinar of the year was held in July, focused on ADRs in the Northeast. The group intends to promote other events this year, focusing on subjects as the outlook of the North region and diversity in ADRs. Other project examples are the call for articles launched in July, concerning the Brazilian Data Protection Act, and a workshop on contractual performance and damage quantification in arbitrations set for August.