This month, some 1600 students and practitioners from around the world gathered in Vienna for the 14 th annual Willem C. Vis International Commercial Arbitration Moot, the world’s preeminent student competition focusing on the resolution of international commercial disputes.
Boalt Hall sent a team of four students from the J.D. class of 2008: Zachary Allen, Michael Kalikow, Van Nguyen, and Minming Wu. The foursome earned honorable mentions for both briefs they submitted, an honor received by only a few schools out of the nearly 280 represented at the competition.
This was the second year that Boalt Hall participated in the Vis Moot. This year the team received institutional support from Boalt Hall and its student-run Board of Advocates (formerly the Moot Court Board).
Boalt’s Vis team also expanded its own program this year by raising additional funds to participate in three invitational pre-moot competitions at the University of San Diego, Fordham University in New York, and the prestigious International Chamber of Commerce in Paris.
These past two years, the team benefited from the generous support of several on-campus organizations, as well as members of the Boalt community. Professor David Caron reports that appreciation is due to the Berkeley Center for Law and Business; Big Ideas Berkeley, Jones Day (Paris), Perkins Coie LLP (San Francisco), Latham & Watkins LLP ( San Diego), as well as numerous individuals who donated lodging to the team. Recognition also goes to Grant Kim of Morrison & Foerster ( San Francisco) for the time and effort he put in as the team’s practitioner coach.
Thanks to Zachary Allen for submitting this report.