The 2011 Vis team in Vienna: Michael Bookman, Nora Ahmed, Andreea Vasiliu and Corey Omer
The 2011 Vis team in Vienna: Michael Bookman, Nora Ahmed, Andreea Vasiliu and Corey Omer.

This year’s Vis arbitration moot, held in Vienna from 16 April to 21 April, involved 262 teams from 66 countries. The McGill team of Nora Ahmed, Michael Bookman, Corey Omer and Andreea Vasiliu made it to the first elimination round of 64 teams and from there to the second round of 32.

The team tied at 17th place for the oral rounds.  Nora Ahmed, Michael Bookman, and Corey Omer each received an honourable mention as an outstanding oralist (a status awarded to the top 15% or so of pleaders). The McGill team also distinguished itself in the written component of the competition, receiving an honourable mention for its Claimant’s memorandum (top 10%).

Accolades aside, the ultimate value of McGill’s participation in the Vis Moot is the unique opportunity it offers our students to participate with an internationally diverse set of peers in resolving a challenging cross-border commercial law problem through arbitration.  The 2010-2011 team – initially in the course of forging themselves into a team – and then in Vienna in fully partaking of the opportunity for collegial encounter – well demonstrated the value of our investment in the Vis experience.

The 2010-2011 team was coached by Azim Hussain (BCL/LLB’00), a litigator at Ogilvy Renault (Norton Rose as of June 1), ably assisted by Vis McGill team alumni Martin Doe (BCL/LLB’08), Eric van Eyken (BCL/LLB’09), and Bogdan (Alex) Dobrota (BCL/LLB’11).

Doe participated in the Vis moot in 2006-2007 and has acted as an assistant coach to the McGill team every year since, while Van Eyken participated in the Vis in 2008-2009 and Dobrota in 2009-2010. The team also had the benefit of generous advice in Vienna from Caolan Moore (BCL/LLB’08). The team also wishes to thank Prof. Frédéric Bachand, who despite being on sabbatical, inspired the team by being in Vienna during the competition, and all the faculty members and lawyers in Montreal who helped during the practices.