Modern history was my undergrad. History has always been my passion. I had a sense I’d be a lawyer, but I thought I’d be spending enough of life studying and practising law so I decided to do something else. The MPhil in International Relations was really a continuation of the history because my history was mostly political history.
You bring a personal perspective to the law. The law is a discipline that benefits from other academic pursuits. The ability to tell a story is central to history and also part of pleading a case in law. Being able to weave together facts in a coherent manner is part of what we do as arbitration lawyers.
The idea of representing a client, pleading their case to a tribunal, being their champion, is an honourable profession. That always appealed.
Law was a career for high-achieving aspirants, when I began. That hasn’t changed. What has changed is arbitration. It’s been transformed. Very few people did it, there weren’t many cases and almost no one did it full-time. It’s undergone an industrialisation process. You have thousands of lawyers around the world practising in international arbitration, you have masters courses dedicated to arbitration… None of this existed before, and when I began and suggested to some people that I make international arbitration my career choice, they said: ‘Don’t put all your eggs in that small basket. Who knows whether arbitration is going to take off?’ Well, 20 years later, it’s taken off!
When I started an international arbitration practice in the mid-1990s there were fewer companies and governments resorting to international arbitration than today. The work that existed was focused on one or two industries. That has been absolutely transformed. Before you might have one or two global centres of international arbitration – Paris, London, Geneva, perhaps New York – we now have a multi-polar world where, whether you’re a lawyer representing a client in Mumbai, Singapore or Hong Kong, you are going to think about international arbitration as the main method of resolving international commercial disputes. We’re living in a golden age.
One of the privileges of arbitration is that each case tends to involve a different part of the world, a different industry, a different collection of personalities and you become, for a short period of time, maybe two years, an expert in that subject matter.
Setting up Three Crowns was a difficult decision, but it wasn’t a negative decision about the place that had been my home since law school, which I was extremely happy at and had always been supportive. There was very much a pull factor and the pull was the idea of building something new: a firm dedicated and specialised in one area of the practice, where every decision made was all focused on international arbitration.
There is a long story behind the name. I’m going to retain a certain level of mystery. The decision at the very outset is that we wouldn’t name the firm after the six founding partners, not least because of the number of syllables in our names, but also because we were hoping the firm wouldn’t be defined by the individuals who started it. Once you make that decision you enter a whole world of difficulty because choosing a name that doesn’t have a connotation in some part of the world is very difficult.
You leave behind a great deal when you leave one of the large, well-respected law firms. You leave a very supportive infrastructure, capable colleagues and a certain amount of status that is automatic. You have to build from the beginning and what you are building is very much, to begin with, focused on what you are able to personally provide your clients. That imposes a certain demand on the individuals and you either have to enjoy that challenge or you’re going to be daunted.
When I suggested I make arbitration my career, people said: ‘Who knows whether arbitration is going to take off?’ 20 years later, it’s taken off!
What’s been rewarding for us is to see young lawyers who have chosen to invest their futures in this firm and clients who have chosen to entrust their cases to this firm, and the consequence of that is a firm that is everything we hoped it would be.
We have an associate base now that makes us as large, effectively, as the specialist arbitration lawyers in any of the large firms we left behind. Our aspiration now is not growth for growth’s sake because we feel we’ve reached a critical mass that allows us to do any case at the highest level. Our growth going forward will be focused on who rather than how many.
Everyone fails, but they just keep going, and resilience is an understated quality and one of the most important qualities for success in this career as in any other.
I’m a co-author of one of the textbooks on international arbitration and we produce a new edition every five years or so. The number of changes that need to be reflected in our new editions are much greater than when I began in 2004. The constituency involved is much bigger now, so there are more people pushing change. The field is being influenced by more, for example, Brazilian and Indian practitioners today than it was ten years ago.
Our aspiration now is not growth for growth’s sake. Our growth going forward will be focused on who rather than how many.
I have two teenage daughters, so they take up a little of my time. I’m a season ticket holder at the Emirates – an Arsenal fan. I have a lively interest in current affairs and politics, not just of this country but internationally. I wind surf. Like many people entering the middle stage of life, I’ve developed a keen interest recently in yoga.
Politics is an honourable profession. The idea of public service is one that would appeal to me and I would imagine something that I would’ve given consideration to. I was always interested in international affairs so diplomacy is another career that I would’ve considered closely.
The thing that has always impressed me is people that have shown moral courage, where they’re facing a lot of pressure and can withstand it. There’s an individual that I’ve spent a lot of time thinking about, James Le Mesurier. He recently died in questionable circumstances in Istanbul but his claim to fame was that he established the White Helmets in Syria. This was a civil action force of everyday people who agreed that when a building was bombed they would rifle through the rubble looking for survivors. A case of ordinary people doing extraordinary things. As a consequence of that he became targeted and criticised by Assad’s regime and the Russian government, so took personal risks as well. That’s the kind of human being we should all look up to.
My career advice is to find yourself the right mentor. Someone who can help steer you and give you the right opportunities, and honestly tell you where you’re going wrong. I benefitted from that hugely. That’s invaluable. The general advice is to expect to be knocked back, but if you keep going, you’ll likely be successful.
The more you look back, the more you’ll have regrets. I try to look forward. I’ve been lucky. I was at the right place at the right time. No regrets, but gratitude.
Constantine Partasides QC is a founding partner of Three Crowns.