Join UvA Vis Moot Team 2025/2026

Represent the University of Amsterdam at the world’s largest international commercial arbitration moot

27 March – 2 April 2026, Vienna, Austria

About the Vis Moot

The Willem C. Vis International Commercial Arbitration Moot is the world’s largest moot court competition in international arbitration and commercial law.

Vis Moot was founded in 1994 to promote the study of international arbitration and the United Nations Convention on Contracts for the International Sale of Goods (CISG).

Vis Moot brings together thousands of students, professors, lawyers and arbitrators from over 80 countries. Each year, around 400 universities from across the globe compete in Vienna and Hong Kong. The University of Amsterdam has proudly taken part since 2008 with a strong tradition of excellence, collaboration and success.

The competition has two phases:
• Written phase: Teams submit memoranda for claimant and respondent
• Oral phase: Teams plead before international tribunals in Vienna and/or Hong Kong

Every year, dozens of international pre-moots are organised to allow teams to practice against each other.

Coaching Team 2025/2026

During the Vis Moot, UvA students are intensively and professionally coached by a dedicated group of former participants, all of whom are now practicing as attorneys or in-house counsel. The coaches bring extensive experience in litigation before state courts and arbitral tribunals, offering students deep insights into both procedural strategy and legal argumentation.

Thanks to this high-level coaching, students consistently experience a steep learning curve throughout the competition. Year after year, it becomes clear that this rigorous training offers an exceptional foundation for a future career in the legal profession—whether in private practice, the judiciary, the corporate world or international arbitration. Few experiences offer a better stepping stone for a successful career after your law degree.

Onno Hennis

UvA Coordinator & Supervising Coach

LLM, cum honore, University of Amsterdam
Humboldt University Berlin

Onno has practised law since 2009 and joined AMS Advocaten in 2015. He specialises in corporate and commercial litigation and arbitration.

Before AMS, he worked at De Brauw Blackstone Westbroek in M&A and arbitration, and at Allen & Overy in Frankfurt.

Onno acted as counsel in cases including the landmark decision of the Dutch Supreme Court on the enforceability of mediation clauses, the largest WHOA-case in the Netherlands and the Jiskefet case.

In addition to his legal practice, he teaches International Commercial Arbitration at the University of Amsterdam. He’s also contributed to legal education projects in Myanmar.

Onno was a participant in the 15th/5th Vis Moot and has coached several UvA teams since 2009. Onno is the supervising coach of this year’s team.

Allard Kool

Coach

LLM, cum laude, University of Amsterdam
LLM, Leiden University

Allard is an associate in the Arbitration and Supreme Court Litigation departments at Houthoff. He specialises in international arbitration, civil law and public international law. Allard has represented corporates and sovereign states in arbitration and arbitration-related proceedings before state courts.

Allard participated in the 25th/20th Vis Moot. His team received various honourable mentions for their written and oral advocacy. Since then, Allard has coached teams at the University of Tübingen and the University of Amsterdam in the 27th, 31st and 32nd Vis Moots.

Benthe Nijhuis

Coach

LLM, University of Amsterdam

Benthe is a senior legal counsel at uButler, an international scale-up, where she leads a team within the Legal & Finance department.

Benthe co-hosts a podcast Vrouwen Justitia, which focuses on unravelling topical legal issues in a digestible way – even for listeners without a legal background.

She participated in the 27th Vis Moot, representing the University of Amsterdam. Together with Allard, Benthe coached the UvA team at the 32nd Vis Moot.

Ophélie Dimmendaal

Coach

LLM, magna cum laude, University of Amsterdam

Ophélie is an associate at De Brauw Blackstone Westbroek in the Finance and Restructuring department. Her practice covers financing and debt capital markets matters, with experience in the issuance of notes, borrower-side syndicated lending and security structures.

During her studies, Ophélie represented the University of Amsterdam in the 20th Willem C. Vis (East) International Commercial Arbitration Moot in 2023, where she received an Honourable Mention in the Neil Kaplan Award list for Best Individual Oral Advocate as she was ranked the 5th best oral advocate worldwide out of several hundred participants. This experience cemented her interest in complex cross-border legal issues and continues to shape her practice today.

Marina Veljković

Coach

LLM (Honours), cum laude, University of Amsterdam

Marina is an associate in De Brauw Blackstone Westbroek’s arbitration department, where she focuses on international arbitration and corporate litigation. She has experience assisting clients in cross-border disputes and energy-related commercial arbitration.

In the 2022/23 academic year, Marina was a member of the UvA team, which attained multiple awards and honourable mentions. She served as an oralist in the final round of the International Premoot Istanbul, where the team emerged as winners. At the 20th Vis East Moot, Marina was awarded an Honourable Mention for the Neil Kaplan Award for Best Oral Advocate.

Laura Wilden

Coach

LLM, cum laude, University of Amsterdam

Laura is an associate in De Brauw Blackstone Westbroek’s Mergers & Acquisitions and Capital Markets department. She advises clients on a wide range of corporate transactions, including public and private M&A and capital markets matters.

Like Marina and Ophélie, Laura participated in the 20th Willem C. Vis (East) International Commercial Arbitration Moot in 2024 as a member of the team UvA. Her team received a total of eight honourable mentions for numerous awards, with Laura receiving an honourable mention for the Neil Kaplan Award for Best Oral Advocate. Following the Vis Moot, Laura joined De Brauw’s arbitration department, where she worked on a cross-border arbitration matter that included a week-long hearing in Zürich.

Stichting Amsterdam Arbitration Moot

Stichting Amsterdam Arbitration Moot is a non-profit foundation supporting the University of Amsterdam Team’s participation in the Willem C. Vis (East) Moot through coaching, sponsorships and donations. Stichting Amsterdam Arbitration Moot also provides a platform for former members of the UvA’s Vis Moot teams to stay connected.

The current directors of Stichting Amsterdam Arbitration Moot are Onno Hennis and Benthe Nijhuis.