New Zealand’s role as a respected broker in international disputes will be in the spotlight in a series of public addresses by a visiting American arbitrator with similar experience in many of the world’s hot spots.

Lucy Reed, the global co-head of the international arbitration group at Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer, will be in the country from November 6-9 at the invitation of the Arbitrators’ and Mediators’ Institute of New Zealand, Victoria University and the University of Auckland with support from the NZ Law Foundation.

Ms Reed, a University of Chicago-trained lawyer whose journalist husband was the deputy managing editor and chief of foreign correspondents at Newsweek International, honed her own international arbitration skills working for the US Department of State in The Hague, Iran and the Korean Peninsula.

She also sat on the Eritrea-Ethiopia Claims Commission and directed the Claims Resolution Tribunal for Dormant Accounts in Switzerland.

Ms Reed chairs the Institute for Transactional Arbitration and serves on the LCIA Court and ICC Arbitration Commission. She is a past president of the American Society of International Law.

Announcing the visit, AMINZ chief executive Deborah Hart said that the American scholar is visiting a country that also punches well above its weight when it comes to helping solve some of the world’s most intractable problems. "It’s exciting for me to be welcoming one of the world’s foremost arbitration practitioners to a country that has proved itself to be one of the world leaders in the same field."

Among the better-known New Zealanders who have served as international arbitrators or adjudicators are Dame Sylvia Cartwright, who currently sits on the Cambodian war crimes tribunal, and Sir Ken Keith, an International Court of Justice judge.

Sir Geoffrey Palmer, who was picked to chair a UN inquiry considering the clash on the high seas between the Israeli military and activists involved in Gaza-bound flotilla, is another.

David Williams, QC, described as one of the world’s outstanding commercial arbitrators, has been involved in helping settle more than 100 such disputes.

"Given the state of the world today and the abundance of talent New Zealand has for helping improve it, Lucy Reed’s coming visit looks to be a very exciting time for everyone," Ms Hart said.