Breaking Barriers: In Conversation with Amanda Lee
I recently sat down with Amanda Lee FCIArb to discuss her background in arbitration and the challenges she has faced, and continues to face, in the industry.
The foundations of Amanda’s career were laid when she completed her undergraduate degree in Law at Aberystwyth University, alongside working for the NHS, where she developed the skill of project management – key for a career in ADR. Soon, her first substantive steps into the legal industry were taken when she joined Seymours, a boutique disputes firm in London. Here, she was thrown into ADR alongside her practice as a litigator – it “just happened” – and Amanda thrived at it. Since then, she has become a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators (Ciarb), sat as sole and party-appointed arbitrator in numerous international and domestic arbitration proceedings, lectured at The University of Law, and served as a committee and board member for key diversity initiatives in ADR including ArbitralWomen and Indian Women in International Arbitration, alongside founding Careers in Arbitration and ARBalance.
As a young woman interested in gender roles and deeply passionate about the success of women in traditionally male positions, I was eager to discuss with Amanda the role her gender has played in her career so far. I was surprised to discover that she places her socio-economic status above her gender when it comes to barriers she has faced in her work. While she acknowledged her luck in living in a “progressive jurisdiction”, Amanda cited her lack of professional connections, “lawyer hobbies” and first-generation status in the industry as bigger obstacles when she was starting out.
When I asked Amanda about barriers in her career, she shared that “I don’t feel my gender has held me back”. From the beginning of her career, Amanda was surrounded by strong women in the field – Seymours had a female senior partner and her current firm, Costigan King, has a female CEO – and some very respectful male allies, including sponsors, who were “always men”. Despite this, she has not failed to recognise the barriers many women do face based on their gender. And she is motivated to help combat the issues that are still relevant today. As a member of the ArbitralWomen Advisory Council and the founder of the ‘Women in Arbitration Day’ initiative, Amanda is committed to mentoring and promoting women in the industry.
For Amanda, “intersectional diversity” – the interconnected nature of people’s identities – is key. She shared that, when she joined the industry, it was still “somewhat expected that lawyers would be privately educated”, though there have been improvements with the establishment of Aspiring Solicitors, for which Amanda has served as a Professional Ambassador for more than a decade, and The 93% Club, which aim to reduce inequalities in the legal industry. Amanda herself has long been a champion of granting opportunities to those who have been traditionally marginalised. As a mentor for more than a decade, she has provided advice and aid to hundreds of mentees, calling it a “pleasure and privilege”. Alongside this, every Friday she publishes a ‘Women in Arbitration Day’ news digest on LinkedIn, which is an opportunity to promote and celebrate the achievements of women across the industry. This is an initiative which Amanda encourages everybody in the field to follow and support.
Amanda’s weekly ‘Women in Arbitration’ newsletter, in her own words, “shows the next generation that there is a space for them”, by celebrating not just the achievements of veterans in the industry, but also those beginning their careers. While her gender has not caused many barriers in her own career, Amanda is conscious that other women do not share the same experience – particularly women of colour and women from less progressive jurisdictions. She emphasises that all women cannot be placed in the same box, and, as a privileged woman, she has a responsibility to recognise this intersectionality and use her platform to serve others. Through her mentorship and weekly post and newsletter, which she jokingly describes as a “warm and fuzzy initiative”, it is clear to me that she has done and continues to do crucial work for women in arbitration around the world.
Having discussed the socio-economic challenges Amanda has faced in her career, and the ways she has worked to help combat inequalities in arbitration, I was also interested to understand which challenges are still prominent today, and how these can be resolved. Amanda highlighted some of the barriers that continue to hinder individuals entering the ADR field today. Such barriers include a lack of available pathways to begin a career in international arbitration and progress from internships to permanent roles, and, crucially, financial obstacles that disproportionately impact aspiring practitioners from emerging jurisdictions, including the need to relocate to major arbitral seats to undertake what might sometimes be poorly paid internships, and the perceived necessity within the market for aspiring practitioners to obtain master’s degrees from prestigious Russell Group, Ivy League or equivalent institutions, often at significant expense.
However, recent initiatives have acted against such barriers. Amanda highlighted the work she is undertaking to develop a protocol to provide arbitrator shadowing opportunities for aspiring arbitrators, which will give individuals who are keen to sit as arbitrators in international arbitration proceedings crucial exposure to arbitration proceedings. In emphasising the need for more professional development opportunities for arbitrators, Amanda promoted Hunt ADR’s ‘ArbEx’ scheme, which “allows aspiring arbitrators to sit and be appointed”. She stated that schemes like these are a vital step up the career ladder for aspiring arbitrators as they “make things easier for the next generation”. Additionally, Amanda shared support for mediation and developing mediation skills, calling it a “game changer”, which can “break the cycle of contention”. Hunt ADR provide a range of mediation training courses, including All About Mediation on-demand course, Civil Mediation Council (CMC) accredited 5-day Mediator Skills Training Course, and AI for Mediators.
Amanda has two projects nearing publication – The Arbitration Act 1996: A Commentary (6th Ed., Wiley, 2025) and England & Wales Court Judgments on Arbitration: Shaping English Arbitration Law and Practice (Brill, 2025). I am excited for these projects to be published.
I would like to thank Amanda for her time and enthusiasm during our discussion.
If you are a Hunt ADR graduate or a professional in the field who would like to share your story with us, please don’t hesitate to get in touch! Thank you for reading this article.