This November I participated as an arbitrator in the ICC Lex Mercatoria International Moot Competition. The teams were to resolve the mock case prepared by the International Court of Arbitration on the basis of the Rules of Arbitration of the ICC. The venue of ICC Lex Mercatoria was kindly provided by the Belarusian State University. This is the first year of launchin the English Chapter of the Competition. The mock case was based on a real scenario, when a luxury yacht was severely damaged due to the alleged defect in the door locking mechanism. The material problem was focused on relations between the letter of credit (L/C) and the underlying contract, bank's obligations to pay under the L/C in case of the alleged forgery of signature. Procedural issue was arisen from a possibility of extending the ICC arbitration clause in the main contract to the bank by making reference in the L/C, as well as relations between the two arbitrations arising out of the same set of facts, but between different entities.

On 14 and 15 March 2015 I participated as an arbitrator at the 6th Willem C. Vis Moscow Pre-moot which was hosted by the Lomonosov Moscow State University. This year’s moot case involved the issues of jurisdiction over a non-signatory to an arbitration agreement and emergency arbitration (the proceedings were governed by the ICC Rules), as well as the problem of avoidance for fundamental breach in commodity sales under the CISG. The participating teams included Russian teams, and teams from the Karl-Franzens-Universität Graz team (Austria) and Ankara team (Turkey). It is therefore a unique opportunity for any interested lawyer or a law student to interact with other people sharing the same interests and working in the field of dispute resolution and commercial law.

I was invited to arbitrate a couple of sessions at the 7th Moscow Pre-moot to the 23rd Willem C. Vis Moot. Moscow (Moscow Pre-moot), and I was glad to participate in it again. This year the event has gathered 18 teams from Brazil, Germany, Switzerland, Netherlands, Czech Republic, Serbia, CIS, including of course from Russia. It was very useful training sessions for all teams before going to the world’s leading moot competition on private law and arbitration – Willem C. Vis International Commercial Arbitration Moot held annually in Vienna. Current moot proceedings are governed by the VIAC Rules and, in particular, the issues of recovery of damages (lost profits, disgorgement of profits, legal fees) and document production are in focus.

This year the first topic of the conference was "Winning and Losing in The Court of Public Opinion: Lawyers, Business Disputes, and the Media From a Global Perspective'. The panel managed to launch very interesting discussion and visitors of the conference could understand better approaches of lawyers to mass media from US perspective, UK and Russia.

The next session I took part was an interactive discussion 'Russia’s “pivot” to Asia'. Joe Liu from the Hong Kong International Arbitration and Noradele Radjai from Lalive law firm informed us on what Russian lawyers need to know about Hong Kong as arbitral seat.

The 3rd session was 'Arbitration of Commodity Disputes’. International arbitration is increasingly a preferred forum for resolving commodity disputes as it can be adapted to the particular needs of professionals in this field, who aim at resolving disputes in line with their way of conducting business: simply, fast and in a cost-efficient manner Since Russia is one of the major players on the commodity market, in particular with regard to raw materials, the topic became of high interest and importance to Russian lawyers.

The session with the following topic ‘Choice of Forum: Where and How?’ was visited by many Russian and UK trial lawyers since that roundtable examined the pros and cons of UK, US and Russia as jurisdictions to litigate and how the enforcement of a potential judgment affects the choice of forum.

During the closing plenary session, the audience was engaged in an interactive discussion about some of the most recent developments in Russian and CIS-related litigation and arbitration, with a focus on the most critical questions that emerge during the course of the day’s panels and other topical issues. I also took my chance to share my views on, and experiences of, current “hot topics”.

Alexander Muranov from Muranov, Chernyakov & Partners presented his outline of the new package of arbitration laws in Russia, its rationale and intended effects.

Andrey Gorlenko, Executive Administrator from the Arbitration Center at the Institute of Modern Arbitration presented discussed the role that the new arbitration institutions which are expected to play an important role in adjudicating disputes after Sep 1, 2016 and shared his experiences in setting up the Arbitration Center.

Jon Hines from Morgan Lewis law firm discussed the impact of Russia's new arbitration law reform package on oil and gas dispute resolution in Russia.

The ABA Conference was held in Moscow for the 7th time on 18th September at the Ritz-Carlton, Moscow. Traditionally, it addressed dispute resolution in the CIS countries. he ABA Conference was held in Moscow for the 7th time on 18th September at the Ritz-Carlton, Moscow. Traditionally, it addressed dispute resolution in the CIS countries. This year the 7th Conference was more interactive in order to maximize flexibility in addressing new developments in the current fast-changing environment. The conference’s opening and closing plenary sessions were  will featured some of the top speakers in the field. In between the opening and closing sessions, concurrent roundtable sessions took place, focusing on a particular topic relating to the resolution of business disputes.