IIT Chicago-Kent to defend its National Ethics Trial Competition title
IIT Chicago-Kent College of Law will defend its National Ethics Trial Competition championship March 14 to 16 at the Robert T. Matsui Federal Courthouse in Sacramento, Calif. The team of second-year students Amanda Bell, Fariz Burhanuddin, John DiFrancesco and Holli Dobler will represent the law school.
The National Ethics Trial Competition was established in 2006 by the University of the Pacific McGeorge School of Law to promote ethical and civility awareness through the mock trial competition format. According to the organizers, it is "the only law school-sponsored competition that features both an ethical component in the issues to be tried and scoring based on the participants' observation of ethical and civility principles."
IIT Chicago-Kent was one of only 16 law school teams invited to participate in the competition, which tests students' trial advocacy skills in combination with their knowledge of professional conduct and responsibility.
Team member Amanda Bell graduated cum laude from Case Western Reserve University with a major in psychology and minors in classics, English and world literature. Teammate Fariz Burhanuddin earned his undergraduate degree in political science and international business from the University of Illinois at Chicago. Teammate John DiFrancesco graduated cum laude from Emmanuel College with a double major in political science and history. Teammate Holli Dobler graduated cum laude from Miami University with a major in English literature and minors in linguistics and Spanish.
The team will be coached by IIT Chicago-Kent alumni Jeremiah Lewellen '11, Rachel Moran '08 and Jessica Velez '12. (Moran, a member of the IIT Chicago-Kent team that won the championship in 2008, also won that tournament's best advocate award.)
Founded in 1888, IIT Chicago-Kent College of Law is celebrating "125 years of distinctive legal education." IIT Chicago-Kent 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. The most recent U.S. News & World Report ranked IIT Chicago-Kent's trial advocacy program among the top five in the country.
