We at Fichte & Co not only pride ourselves on providing high quality and strategic advisory in a variety of law practices including maritime, corporate & commercial, banking & finance, and international commercial arbitration and litigation, our award-winning legal consultancy is at the forefront of supporting activities to train and promote advancement of the next generation of lawyers to come.

Ghada Qaisi Audi, Fichte & Co’s Head of Disputes Resolution was the only Arbitrator from UAE participating in the Ninth Willem C. Vis (East) International Arbitration Moot hosted by the City University of Hong Kong’s School of Law from 19-25 March 2012.

The Moot, is an annual international competition among law schools from all around the world and its goal is to promote excellence in written and oral advocacy in commercial arbitration, one of the most important means for resolving international commercial disputes. The competition was organized by The Vis East Moot Foundation Limited and is supported by the ICC Court of Arbitration, CIETAC, HKIAC, Swiss Arbitration Association, among others. This year’s Moot, the largest to date with 90 teams from international law schools from around the world, was judged by more than 200 arbitrators. In order to compete, the teams actively take part in two different but significant levels of research and writing and prepare memorandum for claimant and memorandum for respondent. International arbitrators, who are experts in their field, judge teams based on their performance and abilities in research, drafting and advocacy. The winning teams are awarded for their efforts; the Pan Asian Award and the Spirit of the Moot Award are among the awards given in the Vis East Moot.

The Moot is a very stimulating and rewarding educational program educating law students on the interpretation of international commercial law texts and procedural rules. It helps them achieve and strengthen their communication, critical thinking and team work skills and helps them to advance their careers as professional lawyers.

Ms. Audi participated as an arbitrator and judged three Moots with six teams from different parts of the world including Germany, Japan, India and Hong Kong. She is a USA Attorney-at-Law and a member of the LCIA Arab User’s Council, GCC Commercial Arbitration Centre, ICC UAE Taskforce on the Compilation of UAE Arbitration Case Law, as well as a Registered Practitioner with the DIFC Courts.

Fichte & Co has is the first firm in the UAE to enforce a foreign arbitration award within UAE. Back in 2010, the firm obtained a judgment from the federal Court of First Instance of Fujairah to recognize two London arbitration awards that were given in absentia of the respondents. The judgment was seen as the first of its kind in the UAE to focus on recognizing foreign arbitration awards under the 1958 New York Convention. The recognition of foreign awards not only leads to more incentives for the business community in terms of investments in the UAE, but reassures foreign investors of their rights against locally-based debtors.