Dear DIS40 members, We hope you have all had a good start to the new year and wish you a Happy New Year 2024! We are starting our second year as DIS40 Nord Regional Coordinators full of motivation and have prepared some interesting events for you on various arbitration topics. This year, we would like to focus in particular on topics that we may encounter "during ongoing arbitration proceedings". In our first DIS40 Nord New Year's Brunch on Thursday, 18.01.2024, 9:45 a.m., we will address the topic of "the involvement of third parties in arbitration proceedings". In arbitration proceedings, the parties' arbitration agreement is paramount and proceedings must be conducted in accordance with it, not at the least in order to end up with an enforceable decision. One of the most persistent problems that we as arbitrators are confronted with in practice is the involvement of third parties in arbitration proceedings who may not be bound by the existing arbitration agreement, but whose participation would be appropriate for the proper resolution of the dispute. These third parties often have separate, independently negotiated contracts with (only) one of the main parties, each of which contains its own arbitration or dispute resolution clause. In order to reach a uniform and thus consistent decision for all parties involved and thus generally also reduce the time and costs of arbitration proceedings, a Third Party Joinder can be considered as a suitable mechanism. However, the threshold for involving third parties in arbitration proceedings is high, and this is where the differences between party-autonomous arbitration and the state judiciary become particularly apparent. In addition, the arbitration institutions provide for very different requirements for the involvement of third parties in arbitration proceedings in their arbitration rules. Our arbitration-experienced speaker Kathrin Asschenfeldt (BAUMANN Resolving Disputes) will explain exactly what these are in her keynote speech. Kathrin Asschenfeldt has been a partner at BAUMANN Resolving Disputes since 2022, having previously worked for many years in the dispute resolution practice group at Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer and subsequently as General Counsel. She has conducted numerous arbitration proceedings under the rules of various institutions and also acts as (presiding) arbitrator. She will demonstrate the different regulatory approaches of the arbitration institutions from her own experience and enrich them with practical tips and experience reports. We are very pleased to have Kathrin Asschenfeldt as a great speaker for our event. We would like to thank Kathrin Asschenfeldt for her time and Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer for organizing the brunch.