The arbitration proceedings were held on the basis of the RAA Arbitration Online Rules. About 70 leading lawyers specializing in arbitration acted as arbitrators at the Competition’s oral hearings, and over the two days of the proceedings they judged and commented the teams’ performance.

Alexander Lazarev and Yan Kalish, both counsel at RGP’s Dispute Resolution practice, took part in the Competition as arbitrators. On 23 August 2019, at a conference marking the beginning of the oral hearings of the competition, RGP’s Dispute Resolution practice counsel Yan Kalish acted as a chairman of the arbitral tribunal at the moot court. Yan Kalish also acted as a member of the arbitral tribunal at the final hearings of the competition on 25 August 2019. Alexander Lazarev took part in the final stages of the competition as an arbitrator as well. Alexander and Yan congratulated the winners and awarded RGP internship to one of the speakers at the Competition – Anton Komogorov, a student at the Higher School of Economics.

Yan has commented: “We actively support the development of the international arbitration culture in Russia and closely follow the training of new and rising talent. RAA competition was held for the fourth time, and again we saw unbelievable dedication and professionalism of both organizers and participants. We are delighted to be part of this celebration.”

Alexander added: “We greatly appreciate the input of the competition organisers into creation and integration of the arbitration community in Russia. It is no secret that participation in competitions organized at such a professional level gives our future colleagues invaluable experience that will become a brilliant foundation on which they would be able to build successful careers. We were very happy to see high levels of academic training and presentation skills of the contestants.”

The 4th RAA Arbitration Online Competition (the “Competition”) is a contest among the students of law faculties at Russian and other countries’ universities studying under specialist’s programme, bachelor’s degree programme, or master’s degree programme. The goal of the Competition is to teach the students practical skills of arbitration proceedings, specifically, online arbitration.

Apart from Rybalkin, Gortsunyan & Partners, the competition was supported by other law firms such as Baker & McKenzie, Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer, Saveliev Batanov & Partners, Egorov Puginsky Afanasiev & Partners, Korelskiy Ischuk Astafiev and Partners, Mansors, and others.