Expert Speakers

Maciej Durbas, PhD, attorney at law, is a partner and leader of the Arbitration Practice at KKG Legal – regularly awarded by Lexology Index, Chambers & Partners, Legal 500 and Rzeczpospolita Daily. He has experience as counsel and arbitrator in proceedings under almost all arbitration rules in Poland and several significant arbitration rules, including the ICC, SCC, FAI, UNCITRAL, and ad hoc arbitration. He is included in the lists of recommended arbitrators of several arbitration institutions. He co-authored the new arbitration rules of the Lewiatan Arbitration Court, where he sits on the Arbitration Committee.

He is a doctor of jurisprudence (UJ), a graduate of the LL.M. program (University of Vienna and City University of Hong Kong), ICC Advanced Arbitration Academy for CEE, and SCC Diploma Course. He is a member of the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators in London. He publishes articles, speaks at conferences, and gives lectures and training courses on arbitration and civil procedure. For years, he has been supporting young lawyers as a Vis Moot coach and mentor for MAA and ITA.

Małgorzata Kożuch, PhD, is attorney-at-law and mediator. Małgorzata is based in Kraków, where she runs her own law and mediation office. Małgorzata is an academic (senior lecturer) at the Faculty of Law and Administration of Jagiellonian University. Małgorzata is the Vice President of the Arbitration Court at the State Treasury Office (Prokuratorii Generalnej RP) and former President of the Mediation Center of the Polish Bar Council (2021-2025). She specialises in commercial matters. She is an author of several books on European Union law and articles on mediation, as well as she organised and participated in numerous national and international conferences on European Union Law and on mediation.

Katja Kröll is a commercial mediator based in Cologne, qualified both as a German Certified Public Accountant (Wirtschaftsprüferin) and a German Tax Advisor (Steuerberaterin). With more than two decades of professional experience, including advising major corporations at the international accounting firm KPMG, she founded her own practice in 2016. Katja specializes in supporting small and medium-sized enterprises, with a particular focus on business mediation for shareholders and family-owned companies.

Katja is a visiting lecturer at the University of Applied Sciences in Frankfurt and has organized workshops and lectures on international mediation in various countries for UN-programs, other government supported programs and dispute resolution institutions. She also regularly participates in Mediation Moot Courts to train the next generation of mediators and negotiators.

Stefan Kröll is the chairman of the German Arbitration Institute and Professor for International Dispute Resolution at Bucerius Law School in Hamburg. He is one of the directors of the Willem C. Vis Arbitration Moot Court and Germany’s national correspondent to UNCITRAL for arbitration. He has been a member of FAI’s and VIAC’s international advisory boards.

Stefan has published widely in the field of international arbitration and international law and is member of the editorial or advisory boards of several international journals.

Stefan has acted as arbitrator in more than 100 cases under many different arbitration rules, including arbitrations with state parties and is since years listed as one of the most in demand arbitrators in Germany.

Joseph is a German Lawyer and regularly acts as (presiding, sole and party-appointed) arbitrator and as counsel. His professional experience and expertise in dispute resolution and arbitration include numerous proceedings administered by the ICC, DIS, DIA, GMAA and other institutions, inter alia as arbitrator, lead counsel and secretary to the arbitral tribunal.

In addition to his involvement in arbitral and court disputes, his experience includes the negotiation and consultation in several extrajudicial (contractual- and shareholder-) disputes, the drafting and negotiating of commercial contracts and corporate advice. Because of his interest in technology and his experience with corporate matters, he regularly advises various start-up companies as well as engineering and construction companies. Joseph is regularly being recognised by leading listings and has been named "Lawyer of the Year" for International Commercial Arbitration by Best Lawyers.

Tobias is a disputes attorney with BODENHEIMER and co-founder of LexMea (www.lexmea.de). He has spent much of his career teaching at various universities, including King’s College London, Humboldt University, University of Tokyo, University of Puerto Rico and Hokkaido University.

His practice focuses on the resolution of cross-border disputes through negotiation, mediation, arbitration and litigation. As a student he has participated in the Vis Moot representing Humboldt University and has since successfully coached many teams, achieving several top placements. He has also served as an arbitrator at the Vis Moot for more than a decade.

He is co-founder and CEO of LexMea (www.lexmea.de), a legal knowledge management tool, where Mooties can access all legal norms relevant to the Vis Moot and manage their legal knowledge.

David Tebel is a partner at rothorn legal. Based in Frankfurt, Germany, he advises and represents clients in complex proceedings before arbitral tribunals and state courts, both domestic and international. He has broad experience with industrial product liability cases – particularly governed by international sales law, large-scale infrastructure projects and corporate disputes. His clients include leading industrials and technology companies with a focus on corporates from the energy, automotive, and oil & gas sectors.

David is recognized by Who’s Who Legal as Future Leader in arbitration. He is co-coordinator of the DIS Technology Group, a Swiss Arbitration Ambassador in Germany, co-chair of the VIAC Legal Tech Think Tank and served as a rapporteur to the CISG Advisory Council. David participated and coached in the Willem C. Vis Arbitration Moot Court for the Albert Ludwig University of Freiburg and the University of Basel.

Alicja Zielińska-Eisen is a Polish attorney, arbitrator, and Counsel at Queritius. Drawing on more than 15 years’ hands-on experience in complex disputes, her current practice focuses on commercial matters, particularly transactional, M&A-related, and infrastructure disputes, as well as private international law. She served for many years as Academic Coordinator of the LL.M. programme in International Dispute Resolution at Humboldt University of Berlin and continues to teach advanced courses. She is also the co-editor and author of the 2025 publication International Arbitration in Practice (Wolters Kluwer International).

A former Vis Moot participant herself, Alicja has coached and arbitrated numerous teams and has served in various capacities on the Moot Alumni Association (MAA) Board. Her most important role, however, is being a proud mother to a Vis Moot baby!