Six Stetson University College of Law students who spent five months working through the nuances of a hypothetical international business dispute beat out 149 other law schools from 47 countries to win the Willem C. Vis International Commercial Arbitration Moot Competition in Vienna, Austria.

The competition required the students to submit legal briefs and make oral arguments on both sides of the case before a panel of arbitrators. The dispute, which featured a fictional sweets maker seeking damages from a cocoa bean supplier, was laced with complications that included a counterclaim and a tricky jurisdictional issue.

Stetson law professor Jack Graves, who coached the team with colleague Stephanie Vaughan, says team members were unshakable, even in front of an 1,800-member audience that included many of the world's foremost international arbitrators and arbitration scholars.

Future opposing counsel should take warning. "I'd hate to be across the table from them," Graves says.

The team was composed of second-year law students Katherine Hurst, Ryan Jones, Megan Schultz, Tom Yaegers and Kathryn Christian, and third-year student Burks Smith.