Marie-Laure Bizeau, Caroline Duclercq, and Chiraz Abid are pleased to take part in a discussion taking place next June 2^nd and raised by the question “Can you lose an arbitration before it even begins?” as part of the CMAP's MARDis, a breakfast series dedicated to ADR.

Through this question, they will discuss the following topics:

• Strategic choices when drafting the arbitration clause;
• Common mistakes made during contract performance;
• Procedural and litigation strategies to be put in place.

The best arbitration strategy begins well before the request for arbitration: it starts with the drafting of the contract, continues throughout its performance, and is strengthened when the dispute crystallises.

Registration link: https://evenium.events/gw5mct86.

We are particularly proud that our firm has been awarded 5 stars in the 2026 Le Point Lawyer's Ranking in the “Arbitration Law” category.

It is an honour to see the firm recognised alongside the leading partners in this field.

We warmly thank our clients and peers for their continued trust and support.

Well done to the entire team for their outstanding work and commitment!

Link to the ranking: https://www.lepoint.fr/classements/avocats/.

Construction contracts do not only allocate risk. They also determine how that risk is priced, managed, and ultimately preserved as a claim.

In the second article of our Contract Management series, "Construction Contracts, Risk Pricing, and Claim Management: From Drafting to Entitlement Preservation", we examine how drafting choices, risk allocation, and day-to-day contract administration interact in practice.

The key point is simple: a party may have a strong entitlement on the merits, but still lose it if it fails to issue timely notices, keep proper records, or follow the contractual claims procedure. In construction contracts, claims are often lost because risks were poorly priced, misunderstood, or inadequately managed during performance.

Our objective is to provide practical insights into how parties can better anticipate, price, and manage risk throughout the life of a construction project.

Read the second article of the serie below!

Medici is pleased to share a recent contribution, published by Décideurs Juridiques, addressing one of the most important aspects of dispute resolution: multi-tier dispute resolution clauses. While these clauses are designed to mitigate litigation risk, they often become, in practice, a source of dispute themselves.

In these “expert insights”, the firm’s three partners, who regularly encounter such clauses in both litigation and arbitration, highlight the pitfalls to avoid when drafting and implementing these escalation clauses:

• Drafting the clause properly,
• Managing it during contract performance, and
• Anticipating risk at the pre-dispute stage.

This concise contribution offers practical guidance to professionals in both arbitration and commercial litigation dealing with such clauses, whether at the drafting stage or in their implementation.

Read the full article: https://www.decideurs-juridiques.com/paroles-experts-juridiques/64206-clauses-graduees-de-resolution-des-litiges-rempart-contractuel-ou-risque-procedural.html.

As part of the conference on public policy and international arbitration, organized by Francarbi with the support of the Ifriqya Arbitration Forum in Dakar from May 13 to 15, 2026, Caroline Duclercq, partner at Medici, will speak on May 15 on the topic of “The Exequatur or Annulment Judge and the Review of Public Policy" under French law.

The conference will offer a valuable platform for dialogue among practitioners, academics, and institutions on key issues shaping the future of arbitration in Africa.

Registration is mandatory: jean-francois.tossens@htgo.be and sara.boualem@htgo.be.

We were truly delighted to host our traditional Wine & Cheese Party during Paris Arbitration Week 2026 — and what a remarkable evening it proved to be!

Amid a stimulating and particularly busy week, it was a real pleasure to open our doors for an evening of informal conversations, renewed friendships, and new encounters within the arbitration community. Gathered around wine and cheese in a quintessentially Parisian atmosphere, our guests brought with them lively and genuine exchange that make these moments so worthwhile.

Bringing together practitioners, arbitrators, counsel, friends, and colleagues of the field from across the world, this gathering embodied what we value most: excellence, collegiality, and the joy of meaningful exchange.

Evenings such as this one remind us that the relationships built within our community are as vital as the legal and institutional work we share.

We extend our warmest thanks to everyone who joined and contributed to making the evening so memorable. We look forward to welcoming you again at Paris Arbitration Week 2027!

While women represent 58.8% of lawyers in France, they account for only around 30% of partners in arbitration and fewer than one-third of arbitrators. Institutions participate in their appointments at a rate of 46%, whereas parties designate them only 19–21% of the time. These figures illustrate the persistent challenges regarding gender parity in the profession.

As part of Paris Arbitration Week, the Association Femmes & Droit, in collaboration with ArbitralWomen, had the pleasure of organizing a panel dedicated to the challenges faced by women lawyers and arbitrators on Thursday, 26 March.

Four main themes were addressed:

• Persistent challenges for women lawyers: access to partnership, visibility, pay gaps, and the impact of parenthood;
• Often similar challenges for women arbitrators, particularly regarding appointments by parties and access to presiding roles;
• Proposed solutions: awareness through education, engagement by institutions and law firms, and collective initiatives;
• The potential role of artificial intelligence in improving visibility, reducing certain biases, and expanding pools of candidates for appointment.

The session was moderated by Caroline Duclercq, Vice-President of the Association Femmes & Droit and partner at Medici, alongside Anne-Laure-Hélène des Ylouses, Treasurer of Femmes & Droit, Karolina Rozycka, member of ArbitralWomen, Martha Alexiou, and Cherine Foty, Board Member of ArbitralWomen.

We also had the opportunity to continue the discussion through an interactive exchange with the audience, which helped further explore possible solutions and share practical feedback.

Many thanks to all the speakers and participants for the quality of the discussions.

Those interested may join the Femmes & Droit and ArbitralWomen associations and follow our upcoming initiatives using the links below:

• Femmes & Droit :
  • Website: https://femmesetdroit.com/ ;
  • Membership: https://www.helloasso.com/associations/femmes-et-droit/adhesions/adhesion-femmes-et-droit.
• ArbitralWomen :
  • Website: https://arbitralwomen.org/ ;
  • Corporate membership: https://arbitralwomen.org/membership/corporate-membership ;
  • Individual membership: https://arbitralwomen.org/membership/apply-now.

On March 26^th, Caroline Duclercq had the pleasure of moderating and speaking at a conference organized by the Association Française d'Arbitrage and the Moroccan Arbitration Club, alongside a panel of outstanding practitioners, Marc Henry, Wissam Mghazli, Aïcha Brahma, Ghiyta Iraqi, and Jalal El Ahdab.

Over the past years, arbitration law has seen significant developments on both sides of the Mediterranean:

• In France, the publication of a report in March 2025 proposing a reform of arbitration law was followed by a draft decree in December 2025;
• In Morocco, the 2022 reform introduced by Law No. 97-15 updated the legal framework applicable to both domestic and international arbitration.

This question sparked a rich, practice-oriented discussion among leading arbitration practitioners, who shared insights drawn from their extensive work across the region. The discussion highlighted converging trends and key divergences between the French and Moroccan frameworks, as well as the practical implications of these reforms for arbitration users, arbitrators and counsels.

A warm thank you to the Association Française d'Arbitrage for organizing this insightful session, and to all participants for the engaging exchanges throughout the event. Looking forward to continuing these discussions – perhaps next in Casablanca!

We had the pleasure of hosting this roundtable during the Paris Arbitration Week, on 24 March, from 12:30 to 14:00 — a highlight of PAW 2026.

Civil law has long shaped the landscape of arbitration across the MENA region, but does it still hold sway today? This question lay at the heart of a rich, practice-oriented discussion bringing together prominent international arbitration practitioners with extensive experience in the region.

The session was moderated by Marie-Laure Bizeau and Caroline Duclercq, whose combined expertise as counsel and arbitrators in the MENA region set the tone for a dynamic and intellectually stimulating exchange.

We were honoured to welcome two outstanding speakers whose contributions greatly enriched the discussion:

• Bassam Mirza, who defended the continuing predominance of civil law in the region, notwithstanding increasing globalisation and the growing influence of common law in arbitration.
• Dania Fahs, PhD, who advocated for a more hybrid and pragmatic approach, highlighting the significant influence that common law has come to exert on MENA arbitration.

Both brought deep insight into cross-border practice and the evolving approaches to MENA-related disputes.

The session was conducted in both French and English, fostering an open and wide-ranging dialogue within the international arbitration community.

We extend our sincere thanks to all participants for their presence and the quality of their contributions, as well as to those who stayed on to enjoy the Lebanese buffet, which added a warm and convivial note to the occasion.

Loyalty & Jurisdiction: What does the Paris Ruling of 13 January 2026 tell us?

In this case, the Court sanctioned a party who, after invoking the arbitration clause before a foreign judge, later challenged that same clause to support its annulment application before the French courts. The Court held that the objection to arbitral jurisdiction was inadmissible on the basis of estoppel.

1. The framework

In France, the parties must act with loyalty and consistency before the exequatur or annulment judge. Concretely, they must both raise any irregularity they are aware of before the arbitral tribunal in due time and avoid shifting positions in a way that could mislead the opposing party.

These requirements are enforced through two complementary mechanisms:

• waiver by failure to object (Article 1466 of the French Code of Civil Procedure, applicable to international arbitration via Article 1506, 1°), which deprives a party of the right to rely on an irregularity not timely raised before the tribunal; and
• the estoppel-based inadmissibility, which bars a party from contradicting itself to the detriment of its opponent.

2. Estoppel in brief

Estoppel is a doctrine originating in Common law, imported by French courts on the basis of the general principle that "no one may contradict themselves to another’s detriment" (Cass. Com., 20 Sept. 2011, No. 10‑22.888). It allows courts to declare inadmissible any claim through which a party contradicts its earlier conduct in a way likely to mislead the other side (two cumulative conditions).

3. Concrete examples in matters of arbitral competence

French courts have applied this principle in arbitration in a variety of scenarios. In the context of arbitral jurisdiction specifically, a party that invokes the arbitration clause to secure an advantage cannot later deny its effect.

A party therefore cannot:

• cause the withdrawal of an arbitration request by failing to pay its share of the advance on costs, and later rely on the arbitration clause to oppose the jurisdiction of the state courts (Paris Court of Appeal, 10 Jan. 2019, No. 18/06344; Cass. 1st Civ., 9 Feb. 2022, No. 21‑11.253);
• initiate arbitration proceedings and later challenge the validity of the arbitration clause to contest the tribunal’s jurisdiction (Cass. 2nd Civ., 26 Jan. 1994, No. 92‑12.307; Cass. 1st Civ., 6 July 2005, No. 01‑15.912);
• invoke the arbitration clause before a state court to obtain a stay of proceedings, and then challenge the tribunal’s jurisdiction in the annulment proceedings, even if it reserved its right to dispute the existence of a contractual link – on 13 January 2026, the Court of Appeal held that this reservation had no effect on the possibility of challenging the existence of the arbitration clause (Paris Court of Appeal, 13 Jan. 2026, No. 23/07623).

???? Your Go‑To Reflex

Before contesting arbitral jurisdiction (or relying on it), anticipate how every procedural position may later be used, challenged, or held against you. In arbitration, every position matters!