Office of Academic Administration and Student Affairs:
News & announcements from Asst. Dean Stephen D. Sowle for the week of November 12, 2001

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Spring 2002 Schedule and Registration.  The preliminary schedule of classes for Spring 2002 is available outside the third floor cafeteria; an online version is linked to this page. The Registration Bulletin and final class schedule will be distributed next week and will also be available online.

To register, go to the main Student Portal page and click on the Online Registration link. You can use any computer with Internet access, either inside or outside the Law School. Registration is tentatively scheduled for Friday, November 16 through Tuesday, November 20. You may register at any time during that period. After the end of the registration period, the registration requests will be processed according to each student’s registration priority. In other words, registration will not be conducted on a first-come, first served basis; as long as you register during the designated period, you will have an equal chance of being admitted to a class as other students with your registration priority group.

To learn what classes you have been admitted into, you must check the registration web site on or after Tuesday, November 27. Registering for a class during the initial registration period is no guaranteed that you will be admitted to the class -- you must check the web site on or after Tuesday, November 27 to learn what classes you have been admitted to.

Exams on Computer Sign-Up.  You may sign up online to take exams on computer by going to webmail.kentlaw.edu and logging in.  After logging in, click on the link for Web for Students; at that page, click on the link entitled Register for Exams on Computer. You will be allowed to register to take an exam on computer only if the professor has authorized this option. If the option is not available for a certain course, the professor has not returned the request form or does not allow exams on computer. If you have any questions, please contact the Registrar's office.

Teaching Evaluations.  Teaching evaluations will be distributed during the week of November 26 to elicit students' opinions regarding the quality of teaching at the Law School. Instructors will review the responses to improve the quality of their instruction and courses. The evaluations are also considered as one important factor in tenure, promotion, and compensation decisions for full-time faculty and are used as a factor in determining the effectiveness of part-time instructors. Evaluations are anonymous and will not be available to professors until after the grades for the courses are recorded.

Trial Advocacy Team Tryouts.  A message from the directors of the Trial Advocacy Program:  Tryouts for the 2001-2002 Chicago-Kent National Trial Advocacy Team and for the 2001-2002 Kent ATLA Team will be on Wednesday, November 28, 2001. All interested students should be in the school courtroom at 5:00 p.m.  All students who are taking at least 9 hours this semester are eligible to try out. This will be an open competition. We will pick four to six students to participate in the two regional competitions.

The regional competitions will be held in February and March of 2002. The regionals for the National Trial Competition will be held in Indianapolis, Indiana. The regionals for the ATLA Competition will be held in Chicago. The winners of the Regionals of the National Trial Competition will proceed on to the National Finals in Austin, Texas, in April. The winners of the ATLA Regionals will compete in Chicago in March. The school is sponsoring both teams. We have assembled two excellent coaching staffs made up of experienced faculty and trial practitioners to serve as coaches for both teams. Judge Erickson will be the head coach for the National Trial Competition Team and Adjunct Professors Patti Sudendorf and Isreal Desierto will be the head coaches for the KATLA Team.

The National Trial Competition is the largest such competition for law schools in the country. It begins with more than 255 teams throughout the nation. Over the last 18 years, Chicago-Kent has been one of the most successful Trial Advocacy programs in the country. Chicago-Kent has been the Regional Champion in 14 of the last 18 years. The National Competition is sponsored by the American Bar Association, the American College of Trial Lawyers, the Texas Young Lawyers Association, and West Publishing Company. The ATLA Competition is the largest specialized bar association competition of its kind in the country. It is national in scope, in that teams from across the country compete against each other in all 11 federal regions. Over 200 teams from 100 law schools will be competing. Our goal as a coaching faculty will be to provide the students on both teams with the highest caliber of instruction possible.

Four to six positions are open on the two teams. Those who are chosen will begin practicing in November. If you are selected for the team, you will be asked to commit a substantial part of your time preparing for the competition. Our purpose is to turn you into trial lawyers.

During the tryouts, you will be asked to present up to 3-5 minutes of an opening statement, 3-5 minutes of a closing argument, one direct examination, and one cross-examination. We will be using the State vs. Fletcher and Morris case file, in the Mauet and Wolfson Trial Advocacy Problems book. The witnesses will be Richard Edwards and Samuel Green. Please prepare an opening statement and a closing argument for one side, not both sides. When you come into the room, you will be asked for which side you are doing the opening statement and closing argument, and which witness you wish to cross and direct. (In other words, you will be asked to do part of an opening statement, part of a closing argument, part of one direct examination, and part of one cross-examination.) We will announce the new team members on the night of the tryouts, so please be prepared to wait until the decisions have been made by the coaching faculty as to all of the positions. (This process usually takes the entire evening, so be prepared.)

If you have any questions, please call Judge David A. Erickson at 312/603-346.

Joke of the Week.  Did you hear about the restaurant on the moon?  The food is great, but there's no atmosphere.


News & Annoucements From Prior Weeks -- 2001-2002 Archives
Joke of the Week Archives

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