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PRESS RELEASE
For more information, please contact: Gwen Osborne, director of public affairs, (312) 906-5251
Chicago-Kent College of Law wins 58th annual National Moot Court Competition
Rachel Moran wins Best Advocate Award
CHICAGO–February 5 , 2008--Chicago-Kent College of Law students Joanna Brinkman, Lalania Gilkey-Johnson and Rachel Moran are the winners of the 58th annual National Moot Court Competition, the nation’s largest appellate advocacy tournament, after defeating six top-tier teams during the final rounds of the contest held January 28 to 31 in New York.
Moran, a third-year Honors Scholar at Chicago-Kent, also received the competition’s best oral advocate award. The Chicago-Kent team was coached by Professor Kent D. Streseman, director of the law school’s Ilana Diamond Rovner Program in Appellate Advocacy.
Chicago-Kent students Lalania Gilkey-Johnson '08, Joanna Brinkman '09 and Rachel Moran '08 are the winners of the 58th annual National Moot Court Competition, the nation's largest appellate advocacy tournament.
“This is an outstanding victory for three remarkable law students and for Chicago-Kent’s rigorous appellate advocacy program,” said Chicago-Kent dean Harold J. Krent. “Congratulations to Joanna, Lalania and Rachel as well as to their coach, Professor Kent Streseman, and to the many faculty members and alumni who helped the team prepare.”
The National Moot Court Competition, sponsored by the American College of Trial Lawyers and the New York City Bar Association, involved more than 400 students competing on 189 teams representing 129 U.S. law schools.
Chicago-Kent excelled in one of 14 regional competitions before advancing to the national competition, where it defeated University of Houston and Louisiana State University in preliminary rounds and University of California at Davis in the round of 16. After defeating Loyola University-Chicago in the quarterfinals and George Washington University in the semifinals, Chicago-Kent prevailed over University of Colorado to win the national championship in a unanimous verdict by a panel of seven distinguished judges.
The students argued a hypothetical appeal to the United States Supreme Court that raised two issues the court will actually address this term. The first issue was whether the Second Amendment forbids a state from issuing sweeping restrictions on the possession of handguns; the second was whether federal law preempts a state's efforts to regulate the delivery of ammunition to minors.
Winning team member Joanna Brinkman, a third-year evening student, is a graduate of Bowling Green State University, where she majored in therapeutic recreation, with a minor in psychology. Teammate Lalania Gilkey-Johnson, president of Chicago-Kent’s Moot Court Honor Society, is a graduate of Howard University, where she majored in political science with a minor in English. (Gilkey-Johnson, also a third-year student, won the best oral advocate award in the regional competition.) Teammate Rachel Moran, winner of the tournament’s best oral advocate award, graduated summa cum laude from Houghton College with an undergraduate degree in political science, with minors in Spanish and communications.
Judging the final round of competition were the Honorable Deanell Reece Tacha, chief circuit judge, United States Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit; the Honorable Richard Andrias, New York State Supreme Court Appellate Division, First Department; the Honorable Julio M. Fuentes, United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit; the Honorable Theodore T. Jones, Jr., New York State Court of Appeals; the Honorable Roslynn Mauskopf, United States District Court for the Eastern District of New York; Michel L. Stout, president of the American College of Trial Lawyers; and Barry M. Kamins, president of the New York City Bar Association.
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