Our Melati Siregar was recently invited as a speaker in an interactive discussion on “Women in Disputes” hosted by the ICC Arbitration YAF and ICC Indonesia.

While dispute resolution is generally viewed as a field that is not particularly supportive of women, Melati gave a different perspective. Challenges faced by practitioners are not necessarily due to one’s gender only; legal practice is a challenging field in general.

Having said this, there may be additional challenges in a dispute situation. Parties that were once cooperative become adversarial. This requires a different approach in finding the right solution. And certain traits that that are traditionally viewed as more masculine may be deemed to provide an upper hand. However, Melati believes that quality always comes first. Practitioners in dispute resolution, whether men or women, can thrive so long as they provide the best service to clients.

Melati hopes that women can look past the stereotypes of dispute resolution practitioners and do not get discouraged from getting involved in the field. Melati is grateful to contribute in the practice of dispute resolution through UMBRA, which judges her quality purely based on the quality of her work and where she can thrive irrespective of her gender.

We hope that we can continuously show everyone that every person can thrive in dispute resolution so long as you get the job done!