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The Medici for Equality Endowment Fund is proud to announce the launch of its first edition of the Medici for Equality Awards 2021.

The purpose of the Fund is to support associations actively working for the promotion of equality and fighting against all forms of discrimination. The Awards are divided into four categories, with a maximum of €10,000 per project:

• Acting through law
• Professional life
• International
• Youth/Education

Applications can be submitted until 28 November 2021 by filling in the form available available at the link below. Only applications submitted within this timeframe will be considered. Projects will be reviewed and selected by a Committee composed of the founding members of the Endowment Fund and an Advisory Committee. Awards will be attributed on 13 December. An explanatory note guiding you through the application process is available here (in French only):

The application form is available here: https://forms.gle/F1QorowZyayeTXbe6

Please send all your questions to the following email address: mediciforequality@medici.law

The first round of the Moot competition about the International Chambers of the Commercial Court and the Court of Appeal of Paris, alongside Paris Place de Droit, the Paris Bar and the Paris Bar School (EFB) took place on 30 September 2021 at White & Case offices in Paris.

Valence Borgia was a member of the jury, which was also composed of:

• Christian Wiest (President of the International Chamber of the Paris Commercial Court);
• Olivier Brossollet (Judge of the International Chamber of the Paris Commercial Court);
• Nathalie Dubois (Head of Legal of Fnac Darty);
• Donatien de Longeaux (Head of Legal and Secretary of the Board, UBS (France) S.A.); and
• Philippe Métais (Partner at White & Case).

The final round of the Moot competition will take place on 21 October 2021.

Medici is proud to announce that Caroline Duclercq has been nominated by her peers in The Best Lawyers in France ranking (12th edition) for her valued work in the "Arbitration and Mediation" and "International Arbitration" categories. Caroline appears in this ranking every year since 2019.

Link available here: Best Lawyers List for France | Best Lawyers

The Revue de l'Arbitrage released in its January-March 2021 issue, Marie-Laure Bizeau and Guillaume Feld’s article "'Living hidden to be happy' - myths, reality and practice of ad hoc commercial arbitration". The article addresses the myths of ad hoc commercial arbitration, presents its advantages and disadvantages compared to institutional commercial arbitration and identifies the practical steps to be taken when conducting such proceedings.

In the context of a dispute relating to the termination of partnership contracts for the development of some varieties of rapeseed, the Paris Court of Appeal (International Commercial Chamber) on 18 May 2021, partially set aside an arbitration award rendered on 23 November 2018 under the aegis of the International Arbitration Chamber of Paris (CAIP), which ordered the company Laboulet to pay nearly EUR 1.7 million to Phycomat and, among other things, ordered Phycomat to compensate Laboulet for its loss of opportunity evaluated around EUR 1 million.

The Paris Court of Appeal dismissed Laboulet's action for partial annulment, but ruled in favor of Phycomat by deeming admissible its second ground for annulment according to which the tribunal did not comply with its mission by ruling ultra petita, and its third ground for annulment according to which the tribunal did not respect due process. The Court thus ruled that the award shall be partially annulled and decided to reopen the proceedings with regards to Laboulet’s compensation for loss of opportunity as it was not invoked before the arbitral tribunal.

Phycomat was represented in the annulment proceedings by Caroline Duclercq, partner at Medici.

Caroline Duclercq, partner at Medici, will speak on 11 June 2021 on "The right to withold the arbitral award" during the Colloquium on arbitration and securities under OHADA law organized in Abidjan on 10 and 11 June 2021 by Achille Ngwanza. The aim of the conference is to discuss the complex interactions between securities and arbitration under OHADA law.

The conference program is available here: https://www.ohada.com/actualite/5901/colloque-sur-larbitrage-et-les-suretes-en-droit-ohada-les-10-et-11-juin-2021-a-abidjan.html.

To follow the conference online, please fill the following registration form before 7 June 2020: https://www.ohada.com/uploads/actualite/5901/inscription.pdf.

Conference proceedings will be published by LexisNexis.

Caroline Duclercq, partner of Medici, will speak on Thursday, 27 May 2021 at 7:00 p.m. to present the arbitrator profession during the conference No. 12 on "The different arbitration professions" organized by the Arbitration & Mediation Department of the Sorbonne Legal Clinic, the MACI of the University of Paris-Saclay and the Paris Baby Arbitration Association (PBA).

To register and learn more about the conference, click here.

Boralex, which is represented by Valence Borgia and Zélie Héran, initiated litigation proceedings against Innovent in 2018 before the Lille Commercial Court for breach of a development contract according to which Boralex was supposed to acquire wind farms in the Hauts-de-France region. In April 2021, the Commercial Court held InnoVent and its Chief Executive Officer liable for breach of their contractual obligations under the development contract and ordered them to pay EUR 50.7 million to Boralex.

To find out more about this, click here: https://electricenergyonline.com/article/energy/category/wind/141/899450/boralex-receives-favorable-decision-in-a-50-6-million-lawsuit-against-innovent.html.

Decisions of the Paris Court of Appeal, Division 01 – Chamber 01, 15 December 2020, n° 18/14864 and Division 5 - Chamber 16, 23 February 2021, n°18/03068

During the last few months, several decisions of the Paris Court of Appeal have been issued in relation to the principle of arbitrator's independence and impartiality. Two decisions, namely the Soletanche case and the Lerco case, deserve to be commented here as they propose a more flexible approach of the arbitrator's duty to disclose potential conflicts of interest during the proceedings, a principle yet strictly applied until now.

Caroline Duclercq will once again participate as a member of the jury in the final stages of the 22nd edition of the Serge Lazareff Competition (Concours International d'Arbitrage Francophone de Montpellier or CIAM) to be held from 18 May to 21 May 2021.

The CIAM aims to familiarize students with arbitration proceedings. Students have to work on a litigation case, exchange written submissions and plead before fictitious arbitral tribunals composed of French arbitration specialists (academics, lawyers, arbitrators, students).

This year's topic deals with alleged breaches of a supply contract in arbitral proceedings under the rules of the Paris Mediation and Arbitration Center (CMAP).

To find out more about the CIAM, click here: http://www.ciam-concoursmontpellier.sitew.fr/.