Originally from Reflections on International Arbitration - Essays in Honour of Professor George Bermann

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I was most pleased and honored to have been asked to participate in this festschrift that celebrates Professor Bermann’s distinguished career in, and unique contributions to, the world of international arbitration. That his friends and colleagues have come together to do so is completely fit and proper. The importance of George’s work to our field goes with¬out saying. His work as the Reporter of the Restatement  alone would be a career-making accomplishment, as would be his impact on generations of students at Columbia Law School.

The challenge facing me - like the other authors of this festschrift - of course, was to select from all his many achievements a topic suitable for this essay and meaningful to me. Unlike many of the other contributors, I was not fortunate enough to have George as a professor since I predated him at Columbia; and I thus have no law school stories to relate.  My friendship with him began much later in our lives and in the context of our working together for the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators and more particularly on the Columbia Law School - Chartered Institute of Arbitrators course on international arbitration.