Part 1 of 2 Stories
Volodymyr Ponomarov, a 2017 White & Case International Arbitration LL.M. candidate, recently won best oralist – and a $1,000 cash prize – at the Florida Bar International Law Section Vis Pre-moot at the office of Judicial Arbitration and Mediation Services in Miami.
The recipient of the International Arbitration Institute Scholarship, Ponomarov is very far from home, around 6,000 miles, as the crow flies. The young lawyer is from the Donbass region of Ukraine, site of an armed conflict with Russia in 2014 and the humanitarian crisis that followed.
Yet he is at home at Miami Law. He has been a research assistant to Professor Bernard Oxman and has participated in Miami Law’s International Arbitration Institute’s Master Series on “How to Persuade a Tribunal.” He has also joined the law school’s Vis Moot team as well as become a member of the local, young arbitration practitioner organization Future of Arbitration: Miami.
“I want to personally thank…the generous opportunity given to me to be a part of the University of Miami School of Law. I am also honored and privileged to represent Miami Law in Vis Moot and in the pre-moots competition,” says Ponomarov. “For me, it is a real accomplishment to be able to compete with native English speakers on equal footing and to achieve a good result.”
Fluent in Ukrainian, Russian, and English (and conversant in French), Ponomarov received his master and bachelor in International Law in 2016 at the Taras Shevchenko National University in Kyiv, as well as a bachelor in economics from Kyiv National Economic University.
The best oralist prize received by Ponomarov is in honor of the first chairman of the Miami International Arbitration Society, alumnus Burton A. Landy, J.D. '52. The Miami Law team placed second overall, a runner-up, at the same pre-moot.
Ponomarov is not the only Ukrainian on the moot team. Viktoriia Korynevych, who previously worked as legal trainee for Baker & McKenzie's Kiev office, is one of the mooties going to the Vis Moot in Vienna and she also holds a scholarships from Miami Law’s International Arbitration Institute.
“I have never imagined that I would be able to actually meet with legends of arbitration,” says Ponomarov who always wanted to attend the classes taught by Professor Jan Paulsson, Carolyn Lamm, and Martin Hunter.
“I am sure that the knowledge I am getting from the distinguished faculty, as well as network I am trying to expand, would help me to build the career in the United States in the area of international arbitration.”
Read Part 2: Miami Law's participation the Vis Moot Competition
