Client Overview
International Arbitration Chambers is a specialist boutique in New York founded by Bulgarian-born arbitration counsel Parvan P. Parvanov, handling international arbitration matters including ICSID cases and business-of-sports disputes, with more than $3 billion in active claims. DomGrid built the firm’s website to stand up to scrutiny from sophisticated cross-border clients comparing it against much larger international practices.
Client’s Challenge
- Calibre Mismatch Risk: A boutique competing with global firms cannot afford a website that signals anything less than top-tier.
- Sophisticated Audience: General counsel and executives evaluating arbitration counsel judge restraint, precision and proof.
- Complex Practice Scope: Five distinct practice areas needed separation without clutter.
- Global Reach: The firm operates across New York, Washington DC, London, Paris and Switzerland and the site had to reflect that.
Objectives
- Design for High Trust: A deliberately restrained, typography-led design appropriate for a legal audience.
- Separate the Practice Areas: Five focused pages that referrers and clients can link to directly.
- Prove, Do Not Claim: Named third-party testimonials placed where evaluation decisions happen.
- Perform Worldwide: Fast loads for visitors across continents.
Strategy and Solution
Research and Analysis
We studied how leading arbitration chambers and disputes boutiques present themselves and what signals general counsel respond to when shortlisting counsel. The conclusion was consistent: restraint, structure and named proof outperform marketing language in this audience, and the design followed that principle throughout.
Strategy
- Restrained Visual Language: Clean typography and structure over decoration, matching how elite legal practices present.
- Practice-Area Architecture: Representation before tribunals, arbitration-related litigation, arbitrator appointments, expert witness services and contract drafting, each on its own page.
- Named Proof: A reviews page with testimonials from UK CEOs, a German conglomerate executive and a Skadden partner.
- Global Venues Section: Presenting the firm’s reach across five arbitration centres.
Implementation
We implemented the practice-area architecture and attorney biographies, built the reviews and global venues sections, and configured WP Rocket for fast worldwide delivery.
Final Results and Summary
Outcomes
- Credibility That Holds Up: The site withstands comparison with far larger international practices.
- Linkable Expertise: Each practice area has its own destination for referrals and search.
- Proof Where It Matters: Named testimonials from recognisable figures sit at the evaluation point.
- Longevity: The site has served the firm since 2021 without needing structural change.
- Measured Performance: As of July 2026 the live site scores 93/100 for desktop performance in Google Lighthouse, with a largest contentful paint of 1.7 s.
Summary
A boutique’s website is often its first credibility test with sophisticated clients. International Arbitration Chambers passes that test with a restrained, structured presence that lets the work and the named endorsements speak, exactly the register its audience expects.