LCIA Annual Casework Report 2025: Efficiency, transparency, and international reach

The London Court of International Arbitration has published its Annual Casework Report 2025. The report gives a detailed picture of the institution’s caseload, its users and its administrative performance over the past year. 

The report offers useful insights for parties considering the LCIA as a forum for resolving international commercial disputes. The report  makes clear that there is an increasing use of procedural tools designed to improve efficiency in LCIA arbitrations, and a greater emphasis on transparency around the LCIA’s services. 

Other interesting facts and figures in the LCIA’s report include the regions and sectors that are particular sources of LCIA arbitrations, and the LCIA’s progress on diversity. 

Click below for our key takeaways from the report, together with our compare and contrast against the statistics of the ICC International Court of Arbitration, released earlier this year.

London continues to attract a highly international caseload

The report confirms the LCIA’s strong international reach, with parties from 103 jurisdictions. Of the 320 arbitrations commenced under the LCIA Rules, 96% involved at least one non-UK party and 77% involved no UK party at all. 

The increasingly international caseload fits with wider evidence of London’s continuing popularity as an arbitration hub. Whilst the LCIA Rules can be used for arbitrations seated in any jurisdiction (indeed, the LCIA’s 2025 arbitrations spanned 21 arbitral seats in 16 jurisdictions), London was the selected seat in 87% of the LCIA’s arbitrations in 2025.  This reinforces the findings of the 2025 Queen Mary University of London and White & Case International Arbitration Survey, which found that London was the world’s most preferred arbitral seat.  The law of England and Wales remained the most commonly chosen governing law (78% of 2025 LCIA arbitrations). 

The ICC’s 2025 statistics show a similar international trend, albeit the ICC’s caseload has a broader jurisdictional reach and is not as London-centric. The ICC recorded parties from 147 jurisdictions, and 69.4% of its cases involved parties from different countries. London was the second most popular seat for ICC arbitrations, at 11.5% of all arbitrations, narrowly beaten by Paris at 12%. 

The LCIA and ICC statistics underline the continued internationalisation of commercial arbitration. For the LCIA in particular, they also provide further evidence of London’s position as a leading global centre for dispute resolution.

CMS’s separate Legal Update on the ICC Dispute Resolution Statistics for 2025 is available here.

Greater use of procedural tools to improve efficiency

Significantly, the data in the 2025 report demonstrates that parties are increasingly willing to use procedural tools that streamline the arbitration process.

The clearest evidence is the sharp rise in early determination applications. The LCIA Rules have expressly provided for early determination since 2020. Applications based on those new provisions more than doubled last year, increasing from 17 in 2024 to 38 in 2025, and ten applications were granted, compared with just one the previous year. However, as the report notes, the recent increase coincided with the Arbitration Act 2025 coming into force, which was likely the driving force behind this increase; the Act introduced a statutory power of summary disposal in section 39A of the Arbitration Act 1996. It will be worth observing whether parties and tribunals show the same willingness to embrace early determination in arbitrations seated outside England and Wales, which would suggest a broader shift in arbitral practice.  Any refinements that the LCIA makes to the early determination procedure in its new rules (currently under consultation), may act as further incentive to parties and tribunals to make use of this tool to streamline disputes.

The report also recorded:

• more requests for consolidation and composite requests;
• a higher success rate for joinder applications; and
• a rise in multi-party disputes, from 20% of cases in 2024 to 28% in 2025.

In 2025, around one-third of LCIA arbitrations were connected to another arbitration. The ICC has traditionally been associated with complex multi-contract and multi-party disputes, but these figures suggest the LCIA is increasingly handling disputes of similar complexity.

Regional growth driven by MENA, India and the United States

Western European parties (including those from the United Kingdom) remained the largest regional group in LCIA arbitrations. Their share rose to 37.3% in 2025, from 33.1% in 2024. The most notable growth came from MENA, which became the second-largest regional group at 14.9%, up from 10.1% in 2024. The share of parties from India more than doubled, albeit from a small starting position: 1.2% to 2.5%, and parties from the United States accounted for 7.3% of all parties, a reasonable increase from 6.4% in 2024.

The ICC’s 2025 statistics show similar patterns. Parties from East and South Asia and the Pacific, North America, and the Middle East and Central Asia accounted for 13.9%, 12.6% and 10.6% of parties respectively. Taken together, the two reports suggest that the Middle East, North America and Asia remain important sources of international commercial disputes.

Energy and professional services disputes on the rise

The LCIA’s caseload in 2025 remained concentrated in transport and commodities (25%) and banking and finance (17%) sectors. Energy and resources disputes rose from 10% in 2024 to 14% in 2025. The biggest shift was in professional services disputes, which more than doubled from 5% to 11%, making it the fourth-largest sector. Technology disputes also rose slightly, while construction and infrastructure fell from 8% to 4%. 

The ICC’s 2025 caseload looks different. It remained dominated by construction and engineering disputes (28%) and energy (15%). 

These figures show how the two institutions specialise differently. Both attract a significant number of energy-related disputes. However, the LCIA remains a leading forum for finance, commodities and, increasingly, professional services disputes, while the ICC continues to dominate in construction and engineering.

Female and non-British appointments reach new highs

The LCIA’s 2025 statistics indicate continued progress in both regional and gender diversity of arbitrator appointments.

For the first time, non-British arbitrators made up the majority of appointments: 52% in 2025, up from 45% in 2024. Western European arbitrators still accounted for the largest share, but that share fell, while representation from North America and MENA increased.

Appointments of female arbitrators also rose. Women accounted for 38% of all appointments, up from 33% in 2024 and the highest proportion in the last five years. Progress has not been linear: female appointments fell to 28% in 2022 before recovering. Even so, the overall trend is positive. The LCIA Court remains the main driver of female appointments, and women made up 49% of the arbitrators it appointed.

The ICC’s 2025 statistics reflect similar efforts, albeit parity is a little further off compared with the LCIA. Women accounted for 29.6% of all arbitrator confirmations and appointments, and 44.6% of arbitrators appointed directly by the ICC Court were women. Both institutions therefore rely on institutional appointments as an important driver of diversity.

Greater transparency through administrative performance metrics

The LCIA’s 2025 report places a notable emphasis on transparency. In his foreword, the Director General observes that “users should be able to see what sits behind the headline numbers”. In line with that approach, the report introduces new responsiveness metrics, including data on the LCIA Secretariat’s handling of requests and applications. 

In 2025, the Secretariat acknowledged 87% of Requests for Arbitration on the same or next business day. The median decision time was five days for applications for expedited formation of the Tribunal and two days for emergency arbitrator applications. In all three successful emergency arbitrator applications, an emergency arbitrator was appointed within three days.

Conclusions

The findings in the LCIA Annual Casework Report 2025 point to several practical considerations for parties and practitioners:

• Early determination is a realistic option: With the LCIA Rules and section 39A of the Arbitration Act both in play, parties facing weak claims or defences should consider early determination at the outset of proceedings. Equally, they should be prepared to resist such applications.
• Plan early for multi-party and multi-contract disputes: Given the rise in connected arbitrations, careful drafting of arbitration agreements across related contracts is increasingly important. Compatible clauses and express consent to consolidation and joinder will help avoid parallel proceedings and inconsistent outcomes.
• Urgent relief is fast in practice: The new metrics give users concrete evidence of how quickly the LCIA handles expedited formation and emergency arbitrator applications. This is useful for parties working with their advisers on interim relief strategy.
• Diversity can be built in: Parties aware of the business case for a diverse tribunal may take comfort from the LCIA Court’s appointment record when deciding whether to nominate an arbitrator themselves or leave the appointment to the institution.

By publishing operational performance data alongside traditional case statistics, the LCIA sets itself apart from institutions that report mainly on caseload and appointment data. For users choosing between institutions, this transparency, together with the efficiency tools available under the LCIA Rules and the Arbitration Act 2025, reinforces the LCIA’s position as a leading choice for international commercial disputes.

The authors are grateful to Anouska Burchell, Trainee in the CMS Litigation & Arbitration team in London, for her assistance with this article.