IIT Chicago-Kent to compete in the AAJ Student Trial Advocacy Competition's 2012 regional tournament

Two teams from IIT Chicago-Kent College of Law will compete in the American Association for Justice's (AAJ) 2012 Student Trial Advocacy Competition's regional tournament. IIT Chicago-Kent will compete against teams from 12 law schools from Colorado, Illinois, Iowa, Kansas and Missouri March 1 to 4 in St. Louis. The winning team will join the first-place teams from 13 other regions at the national finals March 22 to 25 in Las Vegas.

Third-year students Daniel Crone, Marcell Taylor, Jessica Velez and Carlos Vera will compete on one of IIT Chicago-Kent's teams. The second IIT Chicago-Kent team will comprise third-year students Nicholas Economakos, Jennifer Rexroat-Lavin and Brett Siegel, and second-year student Amanda Bielinski.

The students will argue a negligence case involving a hockey player who filed suit against a hockey club and its trainer for injuries sustained during a game. The first team is coached by IIT Chicago-Kent alumni Damien Clark '10, Liza Laughlin '08 and Charles Prochaska '10. The second team is coached by IIT Chicago-Kent alumni Jeremiah Lewellen '11, Katya Manak '10, Sulema Medrano '09 and Michelle Truesdale '04.

The American Association for Justice (formerly the Association of Trial Lawyers of America) is a broad-based, international coalition of attorneys, law professors, paralegals and law students.

IIT Chicago-Kent College of Law is the law school of Illinois Institute of Technology, a private, Ph.D.-granting institution with programs in engineering, psychology, architecture, business, design and law. IIT Chicago-Kent's trial advocacy teams have won numerous individual student honors and regional and national competitions, including the 1988, 2007 and 2008 National Trial Competition championships. In 2008, IIT Chicago-Kent became the first law school to win both the National Trial Competition and the National Moot Court Competition in the same year.