Arbitration has long had a practice of arbitrators doing their own work. As a result, senior lawyers from large law firms have had to adjust to organizing their own files and conducting the kind of review of records and legal sources that, in their practice, they delegate to junior lawyers. But this is not the universally followed practice, particularly in continental Europe, where persons known as law secretaries assist arbitral tribunals.
Recent guidelines issued by two institutions that administer arbitrations the International Chamber of Commerce and JAMS have dealt with the issues raised by the use of law secretaries, and do so in markedly different ways.
