Chicago-Kent wins National Moot Court Competition Region VIII tournament, advances to national finals

Third-year students Angelo Christopher and Lauren Darwit will represent Chicago-Kent College of Law at Illinois Tech in the National Moot Court Competition national finals in New York February 9 to 12, 2016. The Chicago-Kent team won the regional tournament November 14 and 15 at Marquette University Law School in Milwaukee. In addition, third-year student Matt McElwee, who competed on another Chicago-Kent team, earned individual honors as the regional tournament's best oral advocate.

Christopher and Darwit went undefeated for the entire tournament. After prevailing against teams from Southern Illinois University, Marquette, the University of Chicago and Loyola University Chicago, they faced off against a second team from Loyola to win the final round. Chicago-Kent and the second-place Loyola team will join 28 teams from 14 other regions for the national finals.

Katie DeBoer and Matt McElwee, who competed on the other Chicago-Kent team, advanced to the quarterfinal round. McElwee was honored as the regional tournament's best oral advocate.

The National Moot Court Competition, sponsored by the American College of Trial Lawyers and the New York City Bar Association, is the nation's oldest and largest appellate advocacy competition. This will be Chicago-Kent's fifth consecutive appearance in the national finals and its 10th berth in the last 11 years. In 2008 and 2009, Chicago-Kent became the first law school to win back-to-back national championships in the tournament.

Team member Angelo Christopher completed his undergraduate education in mechanical engineering at the University of Wisconsin–Madison. Teammate Lauren Darwit earned a degree in communication from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Best oral advocate Matt McElwee received a degree in business administration from Southern Illinois University Edwardsville.

Founded in 1888, Chicago-Kent College of Law is the law school of Illinois Institute of Technology, also known as Illinois Tech, a private, technology-focused, research university offering undergraduate and graduate degrees in engineering, science, architecture, business, design, human sciences, applied technology, and law.

Chicago-Kent's Ilana Diamond Rovner Program in Appellate Advocacy was established in 1992. Since then, Chicago-Kent students have won numerous individual honors and regional and national competitions.