PUBLISHED:April 12, 2010

Duke Law students receive honors at international arbitration competition

Greg Dixon ’10, Sheena Paul ’10, James Pearce JD/LLM ’11, and Tim Reibold ’10 participated in the 17th annual Willem Vis Moot Arbitration Competition, held in Vienna, Austria, March 26-April 1. Their team, coached by Prof. Charles Holton and Assistant Dean Jennifer Maher, won several rounds of competition before a narrow loss to Kings College London, the eventual winners of the tournament, in the round of 16.

Despite their loss, the Duke Law team finished with the second-highest ranking of the more than 50 American teams at the tournament, said Holton. Additionally, Dixon and Pearce received individual awards: Dixon tied for runner-up best oralist and Peace earned an oralist honorable mention award.

“Competing at the Vis Moot Competition for the Duke team was an incredible experience—there were over 1,200 students in attendance, representing approximately 260 teams from all over the world,” said Paul, adding that she was impressed by her team’s performance in the school’s second appearance at the tournament.

“I look forward to seeing next year's team advance even further,” she said.

While in Vienna, the team enjoyed a dinner at a traditional restaurant, arranged by Viennese alumni in their honor. They were joined by students admitted to the LLM class of 2011, several of whom were in Vienna for the competition.

Duke Law students have also experienced recent success in the North American round of the ELSA World Trade Organization Moot Court Competition and will participate in the international round of that competition in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic, May 24-30 (Read more). That team, comprised of 1Ls Calvin Winder, Catherine Martinez, Lucy Chang, and Dayné Duff, is coached by Dixon and fellow 3Ls Michael Gilles, Amber Jordan, and Jonathan Skinner.