Chicago-Kent to compete in the 2016 William E. McGee National Civil Rights Moot Court Competition

Chicago-Kent College of Law at Illinois Tech will send two teams to defend its 2014 and 2015 championships at the William E. McGee National Civil Rights Moot Court Competition February 18 to 20, 2016, at Mitchell Hamline School of Law.

Second-year students Maxwell Eichenberger, Kathleen Karnig and Jenna Kim will compete on one of Chicago-Kent's two teams. Second-year students Rebecca Horgan, Ryan Suniga and Kelsey Weyhing will comprise the other team.

Chicago-Kent students Alex Beehler '16, Peter Cheun '16 and Alexandra McNicholas '16 won last year's championship and best brief award, and Nicholas Bartzen '15, Melody Gaal '15 and Eric Shinabarger '15 won the 2014 championship and the best brief award.

The competition is named for William E. McGee, the first African American to be appointed chief public defender in the state of Minnesota. Mr. McGee also served as a public defender and prosecutor for Hennepin County. In addition, he worked as a staff attorney and then as executive director at the Legal Rights Center, a nonprofit, community-based organization that represents low-income people of color. He died in 2000 at the age of 47.

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.

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