Board Member Spotlight: Barry Leon

Name: Barry Leon

Occupation: Independent Arbitrator and Mediator

Predominant Practice Area: A wide range of international and domestic disputes covering a broad range of industries and subject areas.

How has your area of international law changed since you entered the field?

"Since becoming involved in arbitration and mediation, those fields have grown on all

dimensions, in Canada and globally.

They are used far more, and in a wider range of industries and subject areas, including

specialized areas.

The participants – parties, neutrals, counsel, experts, and supporting services – have grown in number and sophistication, becoming far more diverse on a wide range of dimensions, including backgrounds, geography, gender, race, language, and age.

In Canada, arbitration and mediation were hardly used when I began, and internationally, they were only used to any significant degree in developed western economies and in a limited number of industries.

The growth continues, and the future is bright. Likely we will see them used more together. We will see arbitration used in fields such as insolvency and intellectual property, growing numbers of participants from the “global south”, and mediation used far more in dispute avoidance in ongoing commercial relationships."