Dr. Nikolaus Pitkowitz, is founding partner and head of dispute resolution at Graf & Pitkowitz, Vienna. He holds law degrees from University of Vienna (JD and PhD) and University of Sankt Gallen, Switzerland (MBL) and is also qualified and certified as a Mediator. Dr. Pitkowitz co-founded Graf & Pitkowitz in 1995 which has since then developed into one of the leading Austrian law firms. His practice has always been pre¬dominantly international and developed from transac-tional work to international dispute resolu-tion where he acted as party counsel and arbitrator in over 100 international disputes, in a range from smaller to multibillion cases. Nikolaus Pitkowitz is Vice-President of the Vienna International Arbitral Centre (VIAC), and arbitrator and panel member of all leading arbitration institutions and Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators (FCIArb). He also acts as Vice-chair of the International Arbitration Committee of the Section of International Law of the American Bar Association and as member of the ICCA/¬Queen Mary University Task Force on Third Party Funding in Arbitration. He frequently speaks at seminars and is author of over 50 publications.