IIT Chicago-Kent to host the 2012 Tournament of Champions
IIT Chicago-Kent College of Law will host the 2012 Tournament of Champions October 24 to 28. The tournament will be held at the Circuit Court of Cook County in the Richard J. Daley Center and in IIT Chicago-Kent’s Abraham Lincoln Marovitz Courtroom.
Established in 1989, the Tournament of Champions is one of the most prestigious law school trial competitions in the country. Sixteen teams from the nation’s nearly 200 law schools are invited to participate in the tournament, currently sponsored by the National Institute for Trial Advocacy (NITA).
Invitations are based on a three-year performance record at the National Trial Competition, the American Association for Justice’s (AAJ, formerly the American Trial Lawyers Association) National Student Trial Advocacy Competition, and prior Tournament of Champions competitions.
IIT Chicago-Kent, which will participate in this year’s competition, has been invited to compete in the Tournament of Champions for the past six consecutive years and eleven times overall. In 2010, the team of Joseph Carlasare ’12, Jeremiah Lewellen ’11, Julie Levinson ’11, and Rachel Remke ’11 won the tournament. (Carlasare also won that competition’s oral advocate award.) In addition, teams from IIT Chicago-Kent have represented Region 8 in the National Trial Competition for the past six consecutive years. (In 2011, Ryan Nolte ’11 and Rachel Remke ’12 were finalists in the overall competition with Nolte named the tournament’s Best Oral Advocate.) IIT Chicago-Kent teams advanced to the AAJ national finals in 2011 and 2012.
“This is the first time the Tournament of Champions will be held in Chicago,” said Judge David A. Erickson, retired Illinois Appellate Court justice and director of the law school’s Trial Advocacy Program. “IIT Chicago-Kent won this honor by virtue of its victory in the 2010 tournament. It provides us with an excellent opportunity to showcase our law school and our trial ad program.”
Awards in this year’s competition will be presented to the best advocates and the champion, runner-up and semifinalist teams. Tournament champions will receive the James Seckinger traveling trophy, a team plaque, individual plaques and NITA’s publication Trial Technique and Evidence by Michael R. Fontham. Best advocate award winners will receive scholarships to a NITA deposition program. The winning team will host the competition in 2014.
