A team of students representing Harvard Law School at the Willem Vis International Commercial Arbitration Moot Court was the only U.S. team that made it to the quarterfinals of the competition on April 4-5. Six HLS students participated: Kimberly Olvey ’07, Nehali Shah ’07, Stefan Neata ’08, Nordia Morris ’07, Adam Hosmer-Henner ’08, and Jakob Rendtorff ’08.
“The Willem Vis competition is amazing because of its global nature,” said Olvey, who has participated on the team for three years. “This year there were teams from 51 different countries, and it is really interesting to learn about the different approaches to legal training in other countries.”
With a goal of fostering study in the area of international commercial and arbitration law, the oral argument portion of the Willem Vis moot court competition is held annually in Vienna, Austria. The competition begins in October of each year when a new problem is distributed to competing teams. Then, teams submit memorandums on both sides of the dispute prior to the oral argument.
This year, 178 teams from around the world competed for the title. David Bigge ’01 and Tamieka Spencer-Bruce LL.M. ’07 coached this year’s team to the best finish by an HLS team in the competition since 2001, when the HLS team made the semi-finals. Visiting Professor Peter L. Murray is the team’s faculty adviser.