Abstract: We review Lipatov's high energy effective action and show that it is a useful computational tool to calculate scattering amplitudes in (quasi)-multi-Regge kinematics. We explain in some detail our recent work where a novel regularization and subtraction procedure has been proposed that allows to extend the use of this effective action beyond tree level. Two examples are calculated at next-to-leading order: forward jet vertices and the gluon Regge trajectory.