On Sunday, March 2, 2013, the Willem C. Vis Commercial Arbitration Pre-Moot Competition was held at the JAMS Miami facilities. The Pre-Moot was sponsored by the Florida Bar International Law Section and hosted by JAMS at their Miami office. Teams from five Florida law schools participated: Stetson University, Nova Southeastern University, Florida International University, University of Florida and University of Miami. There were joined by teams from Loyola University New Orleans and Comenius University in Bratislava, Slovakia, the latter hosted by Richard DeWitt.

Each team participated in four rounds and were judged by volunteer arbitrators drawn from our local community. The first place team, Stetson, received a monetary award from the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators, presented by Luis O’Naghten. Second place winner, Loyola and third place winner, FIU were each awarded a copy of Prof. Peter Rutledge’s, “Arbitration and the Constitution”.

The MIAS $500 prize for the best oralist was presented by MIAS Board Member Judith Freedberg. The prize went to Stetson team member Meagan Foley. Meagan is to be congratulated for her achievement in winning this prize two years in a row. A copy of Prof. Rutledge’s book was also presented to the runner-up best oralist Dane Ullian of Univerity of Florida.

Many thanks to the International Law Section and the Pre-Moot chair, Clarissa Rodriquez, JAMS, the many MIAS members and all the other volunteers who offered their services and made this Pre-Moot a great success.

MIAS wishes all the teams success in Vienna.

The Miami International Arbitration Society Motion for Leave to File an Amicus Curiae Brief In Support of the Position of the Petitioner, Raymond James Financial Services, Inc.

For the full copy of the amicus brief, please click here (PDF).

Philip W. Engle,  one of MIAS’ founding members, has been elected as Chair of the North American Branch of the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators (CIArb), the  world’s leading professional membership body for arbitration and alternative dispute resolution (ADR).  CIArb promotes the use of ADR internationally through 12,000 professionally qualified members in over 110 countries.  The North American Branch comprises Canada, US, Mexico and the Cayman Islands.  His job as chair involves helping raise the tide that raises all boats in the field of international dispute resolution.  The CIArb’s contributions to MIAS so far have included its active support of Miami’s bid as host city for ICCA 2014, and perhaps the best is still to come as Miami continues to grow and flourish as a world class venue for international commercial arbitration!