Yesenia Alfonso, an International Arbitration J.D./LL.M. joint degree student, originally joined Miami Law’s International Moot Court Program in the Fall of 2020, and successfully competed with the Moot Madrid team. After taking a class on Investment Arbitration with Professor Carolyn Lamm, J.D. ’73, who also serves as Distinguished Faculty Chair of Miami Law’s White & Case International Arbitration LL.M. program, Alfonso became interested in competing once more, this time with the Foreign Direct Investment team. She was so interested in competing with the FDI team that she even asked Paula Arias, director of the International Moot Court Program, if she could compete with the FDI team while still doing Moot Madrid.
Alfonso had an amazing experience competing with the FDI Moot team. She describes how she was fortunate enough to be a part of an incredible team with invaluable support from IMCP alumni, many of whom now work as investment arbitration practitioners around the country. She also expressed great admiration for the advice given by the team’s co-coach and Miami Law alumnus, Michael Rodriguez (International Arbitration J.D./LL.M. ’17).
After the FDI team reached the Finals round of the competition, one of the IMCP alumni who had helped the team contacted Alfonso and said he wanted to recommend her for a position at his old firm of Squire Patton Boggs, working with their International Dispute Resolution team. She was thrilled at this opportunity and quickly accepted.
Alfonso has been working as a law clerk through Miami Law's International Arbitration LL.M. Practicum program with the firm since January and feels that she definitely never expected to get a job opportunity from a moot competition, but now she is getting to work on actual investment arbitration cases and is incredibly grateful to Professor Arias and IMCP.
“I really want to share that anyone can do Moot Court and succeed if it’s something they want to pursue,” said Alfonso. “I’m a single mom and it was really tough at a lot of moments, but it’s 100% worth it in the end. You just have to work at it and believe in yourself.”
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Read more about Miami Law’s White & Case International Arbitration LL.M.
