Chicago-Kent wins championship and best brief award at the 2016 Saul Lefkowitz Moot Court Regional Competition

The Chicago-Kent team of Stephanie Crigler and Kenneth Matuszewski will advance to the national finals of the 25th annual Saul Lefkowitz Moot Court Competition after winning the Midwest regional tournament February 6 in Chicago. Crigler and Matuszewski also won the regional tournament's best brief award.

Chicago-Kent and the second-place team from Loyola University Chicago School of Law will join the top two teams from four other regions in the national finals March 12 at the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit in Washington, D.C.

This year, students argued a timely hypothetical appeal involving a trademark dispute between a Cuban company and a Dominican company that both sell cigars named for the same town in Cuba.

Winning team member Stephanie Crigler, a third-year student, earned a bachelor's degree in government from Georgetown University. Team member Kenneth Matuszewski, also a third-year student, studied biological sciences and Spanish at the University of Notre Dame.

The team is coached by Chicago-Kent alumna Ashly I. Boesche '04, a partner at Pattishall McAuliffe.

Established in 1990 by the International Trademark Association, the competition is named for the late Saul Lefkowitz, former chairman of the Trademark Trial and Appeal Board of the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, to honor his contributions to the development of trademark law and to the education of the trademark bar. In 2014, the Chicago-Kent team of Sarah Aagaard '14 and Benjamin Boroughf '14 won the Midwest regional championship and best brief award and advanced to the national finals.

Chicago-Kent currently offers a J.D. certificate program in intellectual property law and in 2002 became the first American law school to offer a one-year LL.M. degree in international intellectual property law. U.S. News & World Report currently ranks Chicago Kent's Program in Intellectual Property Law seventh in the nation.