Aceris Law is pleased to announce that international arbitration lawyer William Kirtley spoke in Istanbul at a conference celebrating the merger of Özcan Legal and Fırat Gültekin & Partners, creating a new firm in Türkiye focusing on commercial and investment arbitration. The event gathered leading practitioners from Türkiye and abroad to discuss cutting-edge developments in dispute resolution.
Mr. Kirtley delivered a presentation titled “How Artificial Intelligence Is Changing International Arbitration,” examining the rapid transformation AI is bringing to advocacy, procedure, and arbitral decision-making.
Mr. Kirtley explained that artificial intelligence is already transforming international arbitration more profoundly than any innovation in modern legal history. AI now assists with case preparation, drafting, legal research, document analysis, and strategy, producing highly polished language that increasingly homogenizes the style of both counsel and arbitrators. While this improves clarity and reduces errors, it also raises concerns about overreliance on AI and the diminishing need for junior lawyers to perform traditional drafting tasks.
He noted that AI excels in reviewing large volumes of documents, identifying relevant evidence, summarizing technical material in complex disputes, and offering data-driven insights into arbitrator selection. AI-enhanced drafting and research tools now operate at a level comparable to a well-trained junior associate, while early-stage outcome prediction tools and argument-testing models are already influencing strategy.
In arbitral procedure, tribunals are beginning to rely on AI for administrative tasks, summarizing submissions, and even generating preliminary reasoning for awards. The most striking development is the AAA/ICDR’s introduction of an AI-powered arbitrator for lower-value, document-only cases. Although a human arbitrator must still review and sign the award, this pilot program raises significant questions about transparency, accountability, and the boundaries of permissible delegation.
Mr. Kirtley then addressed the principal legal and ethical concerns, including the dangers of AI “hallucinations,” the risk of bias embedded in training data, confidentiality concerns arising from cloud-based systems, and the potential discoverability of AI prompts. He highlighted the ongoing U.S. case LaPaglia v. Valve Corp., in which a party seeks to vacate an award on the basis that the arbitrator allegedly relied excessively on AI. While unresolved, the case illustrates the challenges parties and courts now face in assessing whether and how AI was used.
He reviewed recent soft-law responses, including guidance from the Silicon Valley Arbitration & Mediation Center, the Stockholm Chamber of Commerce, and the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators. These instruments consistently emphasize non-delegation of decision-making, responsible oversight, and the need for disclosure where appropriate.
In closing, Mr. Kirtley predicted that lawyers will increasingly act as “AI conductors,” supervising and refining machine-generated work rather than drafting from scratch. Given the speed of technological change, he encouraged practitioners to develop digital literacy swiftly, noting that AI is becoming unavoidable across the international arbitration landscape.
