Queen’s Counsel appointments We are delighted that Attorney-General David Parker has this week announced the appointments of 10 Queen’s Counsel including NZDRC and NZIAC mediation panelist, Maria Dew. Maria graduated with an LLB from the University of Otago in 1987 and an LLM from Victoria University in 1999. She was admitted to the Bar in 1987 and joined the Christchurch firm RA Young Hunter & Co. She moved to Wellington in 1989 and worked for Morrison Morpeth doing civil litigation. In 1991 Maria Dew travelled to the United Kingdom and worked first as a construction litigation solicitor and then as a prosecution solicitor working under the former Financial Services Act 1986 (UK). In 1993 she returned to Wellington and to Morrison Morpeth as a senior associate and then moved to the Bank of New Zealand as in-house counsel in employment law. In 1998 she moved to Auckland. She joined the independent bar in 2000, first at Princess Chambers and then at Bankside Chambers. She specialises in employment law. Since 2013 Maria Dew has been the Deputy Chair of the Health Practitioners Disciplinary Tribunal and in 2017 she was elected to the Council of the New Zealand Bar Association. The other newly appointed Silks are: Paul Dale, Vivienne Crawshaw, Belinda Sellars, and Robert Hollyman from Auckland; James Rapley and Anthony Wilding from Christchurch; Andru Isac from Wellington; Margaret Stevens from Dunedin; and Fiona Guy Kidd from Invercargill. Congratulations to all. Australia amends International Arbtiration Act The Commonwealth Parliament has passed amendments to the International Arbitration Act 1974 (Cth) incorporating the UNCITRAL Rules on Transparency in Treaty-based Investor-State Arbitration into Australian law, clarifying the requirements for the enforcement of foreign awards, defining competent courts for the purpose of enforcing awards or obtaining interim measures, and modernising the provisions governing arbitrators’ powers to award costs in international commercial arbitration proceedings by providing more flexibility to arbitrators to award costs in line with international practice. The omnibus Civil Law and Justice Legislation Amendment Bill (Cth) received Royal Assent on 25 October 2018 and the amendments commenced the following day.