In this episode, recorded from our Paris office in the elegant 8th arrondissement, you'll hear from lawyers in our dispute resolution team discussing their career journeys and the choices they have encountered within this dynamic discipline. Regarded as a centre of excellence in dispute resolution within Curtis, our Paris team comprises lawyers with diverse backgrounds within disputes and beyond.

Host Kate and her guests in Paris take a deep dive here into the practice of dispute resolution and explore their experience working with a global team on international matters:

• International Arbitration partner Marie-Claire Argac shares insights on the benefits of working with an international community of clients and colleagues, and offers guidance on leveraging these connections early in one's career, and staying engaged in conversations with the active investor-State community. Marie-Claire, who frequently acts as defense counsel to States, discusses the satisfaction she finds in developing winning strategies for her clients from the outset of each case. She discusses her path to partnership at a leading arbitration firm and the myriad options available to young lawyers today entering international arbitration.

• Associate Charlotte Fromont discusses her work with the International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID) and the Paris-headquartered International Court of Arbitration (ICC). Charlotte shares how she draws energy from both her work and team, emphasizes the importance of passion for the discipline, and explains the necessity of mastering both legal facts and industry-specific technical details when handling complex arbitration cases. She also provides candid advice on achieving work-life balance.

• Disputes Counsel Loujaine Kahaleh reflects on her experience representing sovereign states and state-owned entities in arbitral matters, and how her pivot to litigation has involved significant time in the formal setting of French courts. She offers valuable perspectives on specializing in both arbitration and litigation, including anecdotes from a set-aside proceeding before the French Supreme Court (Cour de Cassation) in a high-profile case.

An insight into the sophisticated and distinctive legal market in Frankfurt, Germany’s financial and banking centre and home to the European Central Bank.

Life is never dull for Curtis’ Frankfurt team, which serves a strong domestic client base alongside a high level of international clients with interests in Germany.

In this episode, Kate Fairweather meets a variety of lawyers at different stages of their career and across a range of disciplines.

· International investment funds lawyers Tobias Koch and Jan Schoberwalter describe the range of clients and their different paths into investment funds work – as well as the need for an open personality for this sociable area of law;

· Disputes partner Sabine Schmidt shares her experience in commercial dispute resolution as both an arbitrator and as counsel. She also explains why both law and industry custom are equally important when representing sports law clients before the Basketball Arbitral Tribunal;

· Senior tax lawyer Christian Fingerhut on the combination of technically complex work with client relations, while dealing ultimately with at least one and often more tax authorities and regulators. He outlines the range of skills a tax lawyer needs, to work in the ‘overlap’ between accountancy and law;

· Corporate partner Kim Rissel describes working with the “hidden champions” of Germany’s industrial sector and offers some strong and very practical advice to law students.

An insight into the dynamic legal landscape in the Sultanate of Oman and what it’s like to practice law in Curtis’s office in their vibrant capital city, Muscat. Curtis is one of the very few international law firms with a base there, offering both international and Omani law under one roof.

In this episode, Kate meets with a mix of lawyers at different stages of their careers, with varied disputes and corporate backgrounds, who work closely with the firm’s global network of clients and colleagues.

· Simon Ward – Managing Partner in Muscat on Oman’s rapid development and how that has spawned specialisms in construction litigation and arbitration as well as aviation and shipping litigation. He unpacks his work with the London Court of International Court (LCIA) and the Dubai International Arbitration Centre (DIAC). And we find out why he sometimes needs to slip on a lifejacket over his suit.

· Corporate International group associate, Linna Al Kendi, discusses her work with clients on corporate and commercial matters, including defending Omani companies in proceedings before the US Ministry of Commerce. She talks about her early experience as a litigator in Oman’s regional courts, and her determination to become a lawyer at a time when nearly all Omani lawyers were men!

· Sophia Briffa, now a senior corporate associate in Curtis London, explains how she came to spend the first year of her English law training contract working in Oman. She speaks interestingly on some of the cultural differences in business customs between Oman and the UK, as well as differences in client interactions in these parts of the world.