S
tudent competitions are
another way for students
to gain international
experience without
committing to long periods abroad—
so Loyola’s making an appearance
in a lot of international student
competitions. The School of Law has
recently sent arbitration, mediation,
negotiation, and moot court teams to
compete abroad.
“Our teams are strong in all these
areas,” says Teresa Frisbie, director
of the Dispute Resolution Program.
“These competitions allow us to
showcase our Center for Advocacy
and Dispute Resolution Program,
and give students a wonderful
opportunity to interact with law
students and practicing attorneys,
mediators, and arbitrators from
around the world.”
ARBITRATION:
When Professor
Margaret Moses, director of Loyola’s
International Law and Practice
Program, began attending the Willem
C. Vis International Commercial Moot
in Vienna 18 years ago, only 17 or 18
teams competed. Now, close to 300
teams from 67 countries vie in the Vis,
held for the 20th time this year.
“Students have gotten much
more skillful—the bar is getting
higher,” says Moses, who teaches
international commercial arbitration
and, along with alumni volunteers
and adjunct professors, coaches
the teams for both the Vienna Vis
and its sister competition in Hong
Kong. “This year, the Vienna students
attended three premoots and the
Hong Kong students two.” Loyola
also sponsors an annual premoot
attended by a number of American
and international teams.
The Loyola team advanced
twice in the Vienna Vis this year,
making it to the round of 64 after
the four general rounds, then on
to the round of 32 after besting
Oxford in the first elimination round.
Team member David Yoshimura
garnered an Honorable Mention Best
Oralist Award.
3L Katie Smeenk, editor-in-chief
of the
Loyola University Chicago
International Law Review,
participated
with her 2013 Hong Kong Vis
teammates in a premoot in Shanghai
and made the first round of playoffs.
At the larger official competition,
Loyola was up against teams from
Denmark, India, China, and Mexico.
“It’s useful to see the different legal
backgrounds of competitors—
common law vs. civil law—and the
various ways both competitors and
arbitrators frame the issues,” Smeenk
says. “For example, we’re used to an
adversarial style, being interrupted
throughout our arguments, but in
some countries, holding questions
until the end is the norm.”
“Putting ‘Vis Moot Fellow’ on
their resumes gives students a real
advantage,” says Moses. “I see them
become both more capable and more
confident, important steps toward
being successful lawyers.”
MEDIATION:
Every other year,
Loyola’s Dispute Resolution Program
cosponsors the International
Academy of Dispute Resolution
international law school mediation
competition. The 2012 competition
at Loyola drew nearly 200 students
and coaches from India, Germany,
England, Scotland, Northern Ireland,
Canada, and the U.S.
Frisbie coaches Loyola’s teams in
the competitions. Loyola’s 2012 team
took second place for mediation skills
and the 2013 team that competed at
the Law Society of Ireland in Dublin
placed fifth for mediation skills and
ninth for advocacy skills, and netted
a second-place award for individual
mediation skills. The competition will
return to Loyola in 2014 with teams
expected from several continents
including—for the first time—Africa.
NEGOTIATION:
Loyola was one of
just two U.S. law schools selected for
the Warsaw Negotiation Round 2012.
Loyola’s team, coached by Ethan
Zelizer and Jamie Michel, traveled to
Poland last April to compete against
teams from Asia, Africa, Europe, and
South America at the Warsaw School
of Economics. Loyola’s selection
among 37 U.S. law schools was based
in large part upon performance in the
ABA Negotiation Competition over
the past several years.
MOOT COURT:
Loyola’s Jessup
International Moot Court Team,
coached by a group of Jessup
veterans including several Loyola
alums, took an impressive second
place at the Jessup Midwest Super
Regional this spring. For only the
third time, Loyola advanced to the
Jessup International Championship
in Washington, DC, in March.
Known for its tough writing
component, the Jessup International
Competition requires students to
learn new methods of research
and oral argument—“because, in
an international arena, there’s no
singular rule with which to decide
these cases,” says Megan Canty,
assistant director of the Dan K. Webb
Center for Advocacy.
“The competition really opens
up students’ perspective beyond how
things are done in the U.S,” she adds.
“They get to interact with people
from all over the world, and that
experience is exceptional.”
■
Loyola has international presence in student competitions
Loyola’s International Association for Dispute Resolution mediation team members Sabrina
Shafer, Giorie Mahn, and Tanya Woods (at center, from left) celebrated with Loyola coach
and Director of the Dispute Resolution Program Teresa Frisbie (second from left) and board
members Dick Calkins, Case Ellis, and Tom Valenti (back row, from left) at the INADR awards
dinner in Dublin, Ireland, in March. The team placed fifth for mediation skills and ninth for
advocacy skills. Woods received a Second Place award for individual mediation skills.
Professor Margaret Moses (center) and Vis Moot team coaches Bill Davis (left, Vienna) and
John Calhoun (right, Hong Kong) meet with student teams for competition practice.
interest, and provide focal points for the program’s
required thesis.
Like Loyola’s study-abroad programs, PROLAW
offers its students access to numerous experts
in their field. Representatives of the United
Nations, international financial institutions, major
nongovernmental organizations, and individual
development experts and practitioners take part in
a visiting lecture program, which allows students
to dialogue with leading rule of law practitioners
about their institutions and work.
Loris, who was tapped to found PROLAW by
Loyola President and CEO Michael Garanzini, S.J.,
has come full circle at the Rome Center, which he
attended in 1966-67 as a student at Santa Clara
University. “I absolutely started my international
life by attending the Rome Center at the age of
19,”says Loris, who went on to a groundbreaking
career in international and rule of law development.
After serving with the U.S. Agency for International
Development in the Ivory Coast and Egypt, he
cofounded the International Development Law
Institute, which later became the International
Development Law Organization (IDLO) by
international convention. IDLO is now
a key international institution in the promotion
of the rule of law in countries that are developing,
in economic transition, or recovering from
violent conflict.
The PROLAW curriculum reflects Loris’s
conviction, formed through years of pioneering the
field, that “sustainable progress toward the rule of
law, better governance, and democracy depends
significantly upon the quality and appropriateness
of the advice and guidance that national and
international legal experts bring to the reform
agenda,” he explains.
Because most of the students targeted
for enrollment are unable to finance their own
attendance in the program, financial support from
the outside has been critical. The Bill and Melinda
Gates Foundation generously provided $1.8 million
in initial funding for PROLAW. Most recently,
Barry McCabe, a member of the Loyola University
Chicago Board of Trustees and a longtime School
of Law supporter, made a $250,000 gift, and a
pledge of up to $750,000 more in matching funds,
to establish an endowed PROLAW fund. Income
from the fund will support scholarships and
stipends for PROLAW students, as well as other
programmatic needs.
“We’re extremely thankful for Mr. McCabe’s
generous gift, which will help us build the
endowment we need to succeed in the long term,”
says Loris. “In the meantime, we welcome support
for individual scholarships to enable bright and
committed students to participate in PROLAW.”
One of those dedicated students, David
Hofisi of Zimbabwe, says, “I think there’s an
obligation on lawyers to try to use the law for
the greater good. It was my view that the rule
of law is the key variable to ensure that there
is a recovery and transformation trajectory in
Zimbabwe. Once I came to Rome, I learned a
different way of viewing the rule of law: a global,
almost cosmic perspective.”
■
››
COMPETING ABROAD
(CONTINUED FROM PAGE 10)
››
L EARN MOR E ABOUT THE P ROGRAM—AND WATCH V I DEOS OF OTHE R S TUDENT S D I S CUS S I NG THE I R WOR K—AT
LUC . EDU/ PROLAW.
THEWORLD’S
OUR CLASSROOM
Learning abroad exposes students
to different legal systems and
cultures. Here are the international
cities Loyola law students have
recently visited as part of a program
or team competition (cities visited in
2012-13 are in maroon):
Bangkok
Beijing
Belgrade
Brussels
Budapest
Cape Town
Dar es Salaam
Dublin
The Hague
Hanoi
Ho Chi Minh City
Hong Kong
Istanbul
Johannesburg
London
Luxembourg
New Delhi
Oxford
Paris
Pretoria
Rome
Santiago
Shanghai
Strasbourg
Vienna
Warsaw
Xi’an
Zagreb
STUDENTS WILL ATTEND A STUDY
LAW ABROAD PROGRAM WITH
LOYOLA THIS SUMMER.
47
R O M E
V I E N N A
S T R A S B O U R G
D U B L I N
B A N G K O K
H O N G K O N G
B E I J I N G
L O N D O N
LEARNING IN A CHANGINGWORLD
SPRING 2013
13
12
LOYOLA LAW
