IIT Chicago-Kent names its national Tournament of Champions team

Bernadett Guy '13, Tara Korthals '13, Erin Mayer '13 and Valerie Raedy '14 will represent IIT Chicago-Kent College of Law in the 2012 National Institute for Trial Advocacy's Tournament of Champions October 24 to 28 in Chicago. IIT Chicago-Kent will also host the competition, which will be held at the Circuit Court of Cook County in the Richard J. Daley Center and in the law school's Abraham Lincoln Marovitz Court Room.

IIT Chicago-Kent is one of 16 schools invited to participate in this year's Tournament of Champions, one of the most prestigious law school trial competitions in the country. Schools are invited based on their performance records for the past three years at the National Trial Competition, the National Student Trial Advocacy Competition, and the Tournament of Champions. This is the sixth consecutive year and the eleventh time overall that IIT Chicago-Kent has been invited to compete. A team from IIT Chicago-Kent won the championship (and best advocate award) in 2010, earning the law school the honor of hosting this year's tournament.

The IIT Chicago-Kent team will be coached by Nicholas Caputo '01, Nikitas Fudukos '09, Joshua Jones '08, Jeremiah Lewellen '11, Anthony Lucafo '07, and Alexandra Molesky '07.

Team member Bernadett Guy is a cum laude graduate of Loyola University Chicago, where she earned a bachelor of arts degree in political science and a bachelor of science degree in psychology. Teammate Tara Korthals graduated with honors from Miami University with a major in marketing and a minor in business legal studies. Teammate Erin Mayer is a graduate of the University of Texas at Austin, where she majored in Spanish and minored in history. Teammate Valerie Raedy graduated cum laude with a bachelor of arts degree in government and music from Lawrence University and Conservatory. (Guy, Korthals and Mayer were also members of the IIT Chicago-Kent team that won the 2012 National Ethics Trial Competition.)

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. U.S. News & World Report this year ranked Chicago-Kent's trial advocacy program among the top five in the country. IIT Chicago-Kent won National Trial Competition championships in 1988, 2007 and 2008.