The Tribune

By RASHAD ROLLE

Tribune Staff Reporter

rrolle@tribunemedia.net

TWO Bahamian law students won an all-expenses paid trip to Miami this week after winning a competition designed to highlight those who created the best arbitration clause.

The competition – won by Ashley Williams, 26, and Shakira Dean, 24 – was open to college and university students and other professionals under 40 years of age who have had less than ten years of practice in their disciplines.

The participants were required to draft an arbitration clause with the seat of arbitration being the Bahamas.

They were judged by international panellists during a conference this week as the Bahamas prepares to become a major arbitration centre.

COB student Ashley Williams said preparing his clause was not particularly difficult.

His preparation, he said, involved examining other arbitration clauses and taking advice from Marike Paulsson, director of the University of Miami School of Law’s International Arbitration Institute, and a participant in this week’s conference.

“I had to draft an arbitration clause with the Bahamas being the seat of arbitration,” Mr Williams said. “It was a mediation and arbitration clause which started off with mediation being the basis for settling a suit. If mediation didn’t succeed, I placed in a mechanism to refer such mediation to arbitration to prevent the matter from having to be adjudicated in the court system.”

For her part, Ms Dean, a student at the University of West Indies, told The Tribune that contracts are among her favourite topics in law. She stressed the importance of lawyers being able to “get around loopholes”.

She said that among other things, her clause promised confidentiality to ensure that documents from relevant parties are kept secret.

The competition was organised by the Young ICCA, a w orld-wide arbitration knowledge and skills network for young practitioners.