ROAP Construction (EMEA) 2026 FINALS – 9 December 2026
The ROAP Construction (EMEA) 2026 Finals bring to a close our advanced remote oral advocacy and cross-examination courses, by featuring the most persuasive and skilled participants on each course.
This year’s edition of ROAP Construction (EMEA) 2026 was dedicated to Christopher Seppälä.
The outcome of the finals will be determined by a panel of world-class arbitrators consisting of Christopher Seppälä (President), Cyrus Benson, and Marion Smith KC.
The event will take place online on 9 December 2026 from 2pm to 5.40pm GMT. Provisional event programme:
- 2pm GMT – Welcome from the ROAP Construction (EMEA) 2026 Co-Chair Kim Rosenberg, and introduction by the ROAP Construction (EMEA) 2026 Dedicatee, Christopher Seppälä
- 3.45pm GMT – ORAL SUBMISSIONS FINALS
- 5.20pm GMT – Tribunal decisions for both Finals
- 5.40pm GMT – Word of thanks Alex Bevan
Register here for this event and other Delos news:
You will find short bios of our finalists and tribunal members below.
TRIBUNAL FOR ROAP CONSTRUCTION (EMEA) 2026 FINALS
Christopher Seppälä is an independent arbitrator, expert and counsel in relation to international commercial disputes. He founded the international arbitration practice of the Paris office of White & Case, where he was a partner for 35 years and has acted as counsel or arbitrator in hundreds of international commercial disputes, including multi-billion dollar arbitration cases of the greatest legal and factual complexity. He has represented private corporations and banks, as well as sovereign states or state-owned entities (Algeria, Bulgaria, Egypt, Gabon, Guinea, Iran, Kuwait, Peru and Qatar), in international arbitrations, and has served as chair of the tribunal or co-arbitrator in numerous such cases. He began his legal career in the general practice group of Sullivan & Cromwell in New York. Seppälä is a former Vice-President Emeritus of the International Court of Arbitration of the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC) and served as FIDIC’s Observer on that court from 2016 until his term expired on 30 June 2024. He is one of the world’s leading experts on international construction contracts, having served as Legal Advisor of the FIDIC Contracts Committee for the past 20 years and being Dean of the Faculty of Contracts of FIDIC Academy, FIDIC’s learning and development body. He is the author of “The FIDIC Red Book Contract: An International Clause-by-Clause Commentary” (Wolters Kluwer, 2023), a detailed commentary on the most widely used international standard form of construction contract. He was a member of the working group which prepared the UNIDROIT Principles of International Commercial Contracts 2016 and co-chair of the committee which produced the 2019 update of the ICC Commission’s Report on Construction Industry Arbitrations: Recommended Tools and Techniques for Effective Management. Seppälä is a lecturer on international construction contracts to post-graduates at Paris University (Panthéon-Assas).
Cyrus Benson Cyrus Benson is a New York and English qualified specialist in International Arbitration whose principal focus is sitting as arbitrator. Prior to joining Chambers last year, Cy served as the founding member, Chair and more recently Co-Chair of Gibson Dunn’s International Arbitration Practice Group, a practice that under his stewardship was consistently ranked in Global Arbitration Review’s top 20 practices worldwide. During his 34-plus years of practice, Cy has been involved in more than 100 international arbitration disputes and has served as arbitrator in over 30 of those. His international arbitration experience encompasses a wide variety of industry sectors and geographic regions, commercial disputes under both common and civil law and investment treaty disputes governed by public international law. He has particular experience in oil & gas, construction, telecoms, energy, mining, financial services, hospitality and infrastructure. Cyrus has long been ranked as a leading lawyer for International Arbitration, including being placed in The Legal 500 UK 2024’s Hall of Fame (inclusive of Public International Law). He has been described as “superb [with] an excellent grasp of strategy”, “a formidable advocate”, “a class act” and “an exceptional lawyer and a first-rate advocate among the best-regarded practitioners in the market.” Other rankings include the 2007-2024 Chambers UK guides, 2014-2022 Chambers Global guides, 2021-2022 Chambers Europe guide and the 2009-2025 editions of Best Lawyers International in the UK. Cy was a member of the IBA Arbitration Committee Task Force that drafted the IBA Guidelines on Party Representation and served as one of the UK members to the ICC Rules Revision Task Force. He has written and lectured on a wide variety of arbitration issues. He also championed a USAID-backed joint legal reform initiative (with the Mongolian Ministry of Justice) to design and teach a course on international arbitration law and practice (covering both commercial and investment treaty arbitration) to Mongolian lawyers and judges.
Marion Smith KC is regularly appointed as an adjudicator, arbitrator (sole, party and president) and mediator handling matters across a wide range of industry sectors, legal issues and geographical regions. She also represents and advises, as counsel, domestic and international clients in a wide range of business sectors, including construction, energy, engineering, infrastructure, insurance, media and transport matters. Her in-depth experience as dispute resolver and advocate in document-heavy cases includes disputes in which the relevant law is not English law. She has given expert evidence on English law in proceedings before courts in the ASEAN and MENA region. Marion is recognised, both as counsel and arbitrator, in leading legal directories. Her expertise and experience in international dispute resolution is reflected by her present roles, including membership of the Asian International Arbitration Centre’s inaugural Court of Arbitration, representing the Bar of England and Wales as Chair of the Bar Council’s International Committee and her membership of the UK’s Professional and Business Services Council. Marion is also an Honorary Professor of Law, in the School of International Arbitration, Centre for Commercial Law Studies at Queen Mary University of London and a Professional Fellow at Aston University. She contributes to various publications and is in demand as a speaker at international arbitration and dispute resolution conferences worldwide.
Participants
Forthcoming
