In the 2008 International Arbitration Lecture, Jean-Claude Najar, senior counsel and chief compliance officer Europe, Middle East and Africa for General Electric discussed the evolving role of in-house counsel from a conventional lawyer to a powerful business and risk manager.

Through the formation of the Corporate Counsel International Arbitration Group (which has recently been granted observer status with the UNCITRAL Working Group for the revision of the 1976 Arbitration Rules), Jean-Claude illustrated how the true users of arbitration have been given a voice to assist in improving the arbitral process and facilitate change.

Jean-Claude Najar is a senior in-house lawyer with General Electric Company and is the founder and current Chairman of the Corporate Counsel International Arbitration Group, which has been hailed as 'the users' voice'. He is renowned for his extensive arbitration expertise, international contracts, corporate governance and compliance, and for being an advocate of proactive in-house legal departments.

Jean-Claude has published extensively and is a frequent panelist on arbitration, ADR, compliance, and the role of in-house counsel. He has taught at the universities of Paris and Dijon in France, Lucca and Florence in Italy, and Cambridge, and is a former Vice-President of the LCIA Court, and the immediate past Senior Chair of the IBA's Corporate Counsel Forum.