With COVID-19 sparking an unprecedented rise in remote and virtual hearings, the legal community has become rapidly conversant with the technology that makes this possible. Facing a huge backlog of cases, the profession is also evolving rapidly to embrace the best possible solutions to securely conduct hearings, trials, and other proceedings in the long term.

While straightforward videoconferencing and webinar solutions address audio-visual requirements for general purpose meetings and events, going hybrid or virtual is a particularly complex process in international tribunal-led hearings. These involve multiple parties, different languages and cultures, highly sophisticated matters under dispute and substantial document bundles for the arbitral record.

Vital components of such hearings also include the provision of document management services, production of evidence, management of hearing interactions, and delivery of transcription services. All parties need to agree on the key documents, and operators need to be on hand to call up documents as required and tag the evidence as a link onto the live transcript. All participants, back benchers included, need to be able to access the documents, annotate personal copies of evidence, and see transcripts—with notes, highlights, and tabs—in real time.