Speaker details

Biography

Pirita Virtanen is an independent mediator and arbitrator. Pirita founded the first commercial mediation firm in the Nordic countries 8 years ago. She brought a new way of mediating disputes to Europe from the U.S., where she mediated with the leading mediator in the U.S., Daniel Weinstein. Pirita has mediated, i.e., a 1,5 billion-euro engineering dispute having claims around the globe. The dispute (or a bunch of disputes) would have taken 10 years in normal proceedings, but Pirita reserved 1 week of her time and 2 mediation days, and the dispute was done. Pirita has also mediated the largest infrastructure project in Finland, "West Metro". Her settlement rate during the first 7 years of her practise was 100 %. Pirita is a former litigator and represented clients in the largest litigation in Finland, the asphalt cartel damages litigation, for 7 years. She clerked at the ECJ in Luxembourg. She is a Vice-President of the Mediation Advisory Council of the Swiss Arbitration Centre. Pirita is a graduate of Harvard Law School.