Chicago-Kent advances to the national round of the 2016 ABA National Appellate Advocacy Competition

The Chicago-Kent team of Caitlin Ajax and David Love won a regional championship at the 2016 ABA National Appellate Advocacy Competition, held March 3 to 5 in San Francisco.

At the regional tournament, Ajax and Love went undefeated through five rounds of intense competition and won the award for fifth-best brief. They will join the other three top teams from the San Francisco regional tournament and 20 championship teams from five additional regions at the national tournament April 7 to 9 in Chicago.

Alex Halaska, who competed on an another Chicago-Kent team, won the award for the region's best oral advocate, and his teammate, Theresa Starck, was named third-best oral advocate for the regional competition. Halaska and Starck went undefeated for four rounds before being eliminated in a close contest against a team from the University of the Pacific, McGeorge School of Law.

Sponsored by the American Bar Association's Law Student Division, the National Appellate Advocacy Competition emphasizes students' written and oral advocacy skills. This is the third time in six years that Chicago-Kent has won the best advocate award at the regional competition.

Chicago-Kent's Ilana Diamond Rovner Program in Appellate Advocacy, the umbrella program for many of the law school's moot court activities, was established in 1992. Since then, Chicago-Kent students have won numerous individual honors and regional and national competitions, including consecutive titles in the New York City Bar Association's National Moot Court Competition.