Covington Launches International Arbitration Academy

Covington Launches International Arbitration Academy

April 21, 2016

NEW YORK — Covington has partnered with Columbia Law School and its Center for International Commercial and Investment Arbitration to launch the Covington Academy on International Arbitration (CAIA). The program is open to Columbia’s J.D., LL.M, and S.J.D. students.

The three-day program will consist of training followed by practical exercises and live feedback in areas such as procedural strategy, witness interviews and preparation, pleadings and memorials, direct and cross-examination, effective use of documentary evidence, and oral argument.

“We wanted to offer hands-on training followed by real-time exercises in areas that are usually not covered by mock competitions in international arbitration,” said Nicole Duclos, an arbitration partner in Covington’s New York office. A team of Covington partners and associates from New York, Washington, and London will participate in this year’s program.

“CAIA is highly innovative and productive and will benefit both newly-minted and more experienced young lawyers committed to a career in international commercial and investment arbitration,” said George Bermann, a Columbia Law Professor and Director of the Center for International Commercial and Investment Arbitration. “This program offers a concentrated practical training that law schools have a difficult time putting in place and that no other law firm, to my knowledge, has either.”

The first CAIA, which will take place in mid-May, is fully subscribed and will include participants from Australia, Brazil, Chile, France, Greece, Hong Kong, Indonesia, New Zealand, Peru, the Philippines, Russia, and the United States.