The former International Court of Justice president will kick off the June event in Westminster
Former International Court of Justice president and judge Joan Donoghue has been announced as the keynote speaker for the 2025 London International Disputes Week commencing on June 3.
Donoghue’s address will kick off the event’s main conference. She is an arbitrator with London’s Twenty Essex chambers and a public international lawyer who in addition to her roles with the ICJ worked with the US State Department for about two decades and taught international law.
Donoghue was ICJ judge from 2010 to 2024 and led the court as president from 2021 to 2024, according to LinkedIn. While with the US State Department, she tackled various international legal matters and became principal deputy legal adviser (2007-2010).
She was US Treasury Department general counsel from 1999 to 2000 and was general counsel at a financial services company in the US from 2003 to 2005. She has either been a part of or presided over investor-state tribunals and ICSID annulment committees; moreover, she was a US designee to the ICSID Panel of Arbitrators from 2016 to 2024.
The 2025 LIDW main conference will be held at Westminster’s QEII Centre. The event’s theme is “Innovation in Dispute Resolution: Navigating Global Risks.”
“At a time of profound change and uncertainty, with the post-1945 order and the rules-based
system that many have long taken for granted now in flux, there is much to reflect on at LIDW this June,” said Cherie Blair, founder and chair of Omnia Strategy LLP, in a statement.
Other speakers at the event include Google DeepMind legal co-head James Besley, Wexler AI founder Gregory Mostyn, Judge in Charge of the Commercial Court of England &
Wales Justice Henshaw, and Freshfields head of London dispute resolution Andrew Austin.
The panel discussions will tackle geopolitical and economic influences on disputes, supply chain disputes and risk mitigation, judicial innovation in dispute resolution, ethical responsibilities, and artificial intelligence, among others.
