“This was a great accomplishment for Otylia Babiak,” said Associate Professor Christopher Gibson, co-founder and co-director of the FDI Moot Competition. “She demonstrated great poise and a sharp intellect in presenting her arguments.”

The Thomas Waelde Advocacy Prize is awarded annually to the best individual advocate of the competition’s oral hearings, determined by adding the scores awarded to that oralist in the three preliminary rounds in which he or she argued. Babiak shared her award with Aaron Echols of Pepperdine University Law School and Marija Skundric of Belgrade University Faculty of Law. Kristian Hermanrud, a Suffolk Law LLM student set to graduate in January, also received honorable mention for placing in the top ten among oral advocates.

The 2009 FDI Moot Competition was held October 22–24 at the Deutsche Institution for Schiedgerichtsbarkeit in Frankfurt. This year’s topic involved questions of corporate nationality, investment definition, rights arising through a most-favored nation clause, compulsory licensing of patent rights, expropriation, and the relationship between investment law and trade law (TRIPs).

Twenty teams from around the globe participated, with the team from Pepperdine University Law School eventually prevailing over St. Petersburg State University to win the 2009 Skadden, Arps FDI Moot Competition trophy. The Suffolk Law team, coached by Gibson and assistant professor Sabrina DeFabritiis, placed sixth.

“Receiving recognition as an oral advocate in this competition was a very rewarding culmination to six months of work,” said Babiak. “I am proud I could put the skills and knowledge I have gained from my professors and colleagues to good use.”