IIT Chicago-Kent will defend its national Tournament of Champions title in New York October 27-30

IIT Chicago-Kent College of Law will defend its national title at the 2011 National Institute for Trial Advocacy's Tournament of Champions taking place October 27 to 30 at the United States District Court for the Eastern District of New York.

Hosted this year by St. John's University School of Law, the Tournament of Champions is one of the most prestigious law school trial competitions in the country. Each year, 16 schools from the nation's nearly 200 law schools are invited to participate. Invitations are based on the schools' three-year performance record at the National Trial Competition, the American Trial Lawyers Association's National Student Trial Advocacy Competition, and prior Tournament of Champions competitions.

This is the fifth consecutive year and the tenth time overall that IIT Chicago-Kent has been invited to participate in the Tournament of Champions. As 2010 champions, the law school will host the annual competition in 2012.

Third-year students Brandi Archer, Joseph Carlasare, Lindsay Gephardt and Rachel Remke will represent IIT Chicago-Kent in the 2011 Tournament of Champions. Carlasare and Remke were members of the 2010 championship team, with Carlasare also winning the tournament's best advocate award.

The team will be coached by David A. Erickson, retired Illinois Appellate Court Justice and director of IIT Chicago-Kent's Trial Advocacy Program, along with Adjunct Professor David Lavin and alumni Elizabeth Laughlin '08 and Charles Prochaska '09.

Team member Brandi Archer graduated with a degree in political science from Indiana University-Purdue University Fort Wayne. Teammate Joseph Carlasare graduated magna cum laude with a double major in political science and philosophy and a minor in economics from Loyola University Chicago. Carlasare represented IIT Chicago-Kent and finished among the top four student-advocates in the winner-take-all 2011 National Top Gun Mock Trial Competition.

Teammate Lindsay Gephardt graduated magna cum laude from Arizona State University with a major in justice studies and a minor in sociology. Teammate Rachel Remke graduated magna cum laude from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign with a double major in political science and psychology. Remke was also a member of the IIT Chicago-Kent team that placed second overall in the 2011 National 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.