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ICSID's Investment Mediation Insights webinar, which debuted in 2021, returns in 2025 with a new installment of practical insights into the growing field of mediation between States and investors.

This episode of Investment Mediation Insights will feature a case study of an investment mediation in the Baltics, with representatives from the investors, the State and the mediator reflecting about the mediation process, how it started and evolved, what is different compared to a litigious approach, and how a sustainable outcome was achieved. 

Speakers:

​Tomasz Podkowiński: Tomasz has over 25 years' experience working as a lawyer. He has been a member of the Warsaw Bar Association since 2003. For 15 years, he has been working as an attorney-at-law at Budimex, Poland's largest construction company listed on the Warsaw Stock Exchange, being a subsidiary of Ferrovial. He provides legal assistance mainly for infrastructure, railway, energy and industrial projects, including those implemented in the Baltic States (Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia). He also represents the company in public procurement matters and in common and arbitration court disputes. Previously, he worked as an attorney-at-law at Siemens Polska, the law firm and a property management company.  He is also the author of several articles, including works devoted to arbitration.

Karolis Gudas: Karolis is an attorney-at-law based in Vilnius, Lithuania, specializing in international arbitration, mediation, and cross-border dispute resolution. He has extensive experience representing clients in complex investment and commercial disputes before arbitral tribunals and state authorities. Karolis has represented clients before institutions such as the European Commission, as well as Lithuanian national authorities. He has appeared on behalf of clients before the Supreme Court of Lithuania, the Supreme Administrative Court of Lithuania, the Court of Justice of the European Union, and in international arbitration proceedings under various institutional rules – ICC (Paris), SCC (Stockholm), FIA (Finland), FTC (Serbia), HKIAC (Hong Kong), and VCA (Vilnius). He has a Master’s Degree in European Union Law from Mykolas Romeris University, and a Postgraduate Diploma in European Union law from King’s College, University of London. He studied international law at the University of Iceland.

Bill Marsh: Bill is a leading independent international mediator. Formerly a corporate lawyer, he has mediated full-time since 1991 in a range of commercial and other disputes involving governments, public companies, national and international businesses, groups and individuals from over 50 countries. His mediations cover a broad cross-section of commercial disputes. He is the founder and director of Conflict Management International, a private consulting firm advising governments and businesses on the effective handling and resolution of conflicts and disputes. Bill has also served as adviser on mediation/conflict resolution to many governments including Russia, Turkey, Ukraine, Romania, Bulgaria, Slovakia, and Saudi Arabia, and bodies such as the European Union Commission, the United Nations and the World Bank. He trains and mentors mediators from around the world and has served as a Special Adviser on Reconciliation to the Archbishop of Canterbury. He is the author of “The ADR Practice Guide: Commercial Dispute Resolution”, a contributing author to “Mediators on Mediation”, and Editor and regular contributor of the Kluwer Mediation Blog.

Moderator:

Frauke Nitschke: Frauke is a Senior Legal Counsel at ICSID and serves as the team lead for one of the Centre’s case management teams. Frauke further leads ICSID’s investor-State mediation activities, including the development of the ICSID Mediation Rules, amendments to ICSID’s conciliation frameworks, and ICSID’s Background Paper on Investment Mediation. Frauke has developed and conducted investor-State capacity-building workshops and trainings for mediators and government officials, and led the Centre’s contributions on mediation to the United Nations Commission on Trade and Law (UNCITRAL) Working Group III on investor-State dispute settlement reform. She is an accredited mediator and admitted to practice law in New York and Washington, D.C., and holds law degrees from the Freie Universität Berlin and Georgetown University Law Center (LL.M.), and a Master’s degree in Organizational Psychology from the FernUniversität Hagen.