Mahira Musani ’19 receives the 2019 Marc Grinker Student Commitment Award

Mahira Musani ’19 has been chosen to receive the 2019 Marc Grinker Student Commitment Award for her dedication to Chicago-Kent College of Law’s Moot Court Honor Society.

The award was created in memory of Professor Marc A. Grinker, a member of the Chicago-Kent faculty from 1990 until his death in 1996 who served as the first director of the law school’s appellate advocacy program. The Grinker Award honors students who embody Grinker’s dedication to the program and the law school.

“As several Moot Court Honor Society members who nominated her stated, she embodies everything that is good about our program,” says Professor Kent Streseman, current director of the appellate advocacy program. “She loves advocacy and is devoted to helping our members succeed. To that end, she has been a strong and steady presence at practices for our junior members and our traveling teams.”

Musani is a 2018–19 vice president of Chicago-Kent’s Moot Court Honor Society. In fall 2018 she earned the award for second-place best oral argument at the Appellate Lawyers Association’s National Moot Court Competition in Chicago. Along with her teammates Jack Amaro ’19 and Keisha McClellan ’19, Musani placed third in the 2018 William E. McGee National Civil Rights Moot Court Competition at Mitchell Hamline School of Law in Minnesota.

“Moot Court has been by far the most enriching and exciting experience of my time at Chicago-Kent,” says Musani. “It has given me a close-knit community of friends and mentors who have helped me grow as an advocate, future attorney, and person. It’s been a privilege to be part of such a wonderful organization and to give back to the community that has had such a positive impact on me.”

Musani will graduate in May 2019 with a J.D. degree and a certificate in criminal litigation. During law school she clerked at the Cook County State’s Attorney’s Office and the Office of the Illinois Attorney General. She spent the fall 2017 semester in the Law Offices of Chicago-Kent working in the Criminal Defense Litigation Clinic. In summer 2016, Musani was a research intern for religious liberty attorney Asma Uddin. She is the 2018–19 vice president of Chicago-Kent’s Muslim Law Students Association and writes for the web magazine altMuslimah. After graduation, she will work as a prosecutor at the Cook County State’s Attorney’s Office.

Musani graduated magna cum laude from Benedictine University in Lisle, Illinois, with a bachelor’s degree in political science. She competed on Benedictine’s mock trial team and earned the university’s Mock Trial Award. 

Chicago-Kent’s Ilana Diamond Rovner Program in Appellate Advocacy, the umbrella program for many of the law school’s moot court activities, was established in 1992. Since then, Chicago-Kent students have won numerous individual honors and regional and national competitions, including consecutive titles in the New York City Bar Association’s National Moot Court Competition.