Winning the Room: The Neuroscience of Effective Advocacy and Leadership

Presentation

'Winning the Room: The Neuroscience of Effective Advocacy and Leadership' invites arbitration practitioners to look behind technique and into the biology of persuasion.

In hearings and negotiations, our nervous system state - fight/flight, shutdown, or social engagement - shapes how we think, listen, speak, and lead. Drawing on neuroscience, we will explore why clarity, credibility, and presence are not purely intellectual skills, but physiological states, and how breath and nervous system cues can shift the quality of advocacy in the room.

We will also explore how practitioners can learn to “read the room” by recognizing nervous system states in others - tribunals, witnesses, clients, and co-counsel - giving you the opportunity to respond in a way that lands effectively.

Hosted by Laborde Law and presented by ARBalance, this session is delivered as part of the ADR Wellbeing Toolbox, a joint initiative between ARBalance, Racial Equality for Arbitration Lawyers (R.E.A.L.) and the Vienna International Arbitral Centre (VIAC).

Ema Potočnik will introduce the topic, following which Yulia Polyakina will share the secrets of the neuroscience behind effective advocacy alongside Kabir Duggal, and Amanda Lee, who will explore how the science can be applied practically to support effective advocacy, leadership, and sustainable career longevity.

Admission at 10:30 am, with the event to start at 11 am, followed by lunch.

A networking lunch will be provided following the session.