From L to R: Stephanie Crigler and Kenneth Matuszewski

Stephanie Crigler and Kenneth Matuszewski, third-year students at Chicago-Kent College of Law at Illinois Tech, won second place at the national finals of the 25th annual Saul Lefkowitz Moot Court Competition, held March 12 at the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit in Washington, D.C.

Along with their second place finish, the team received second-place awards for best brief and best oral advocate. The judging panel praised Crigler and Matuszewski for using a daring real-world strategy during oral arguments.

At this year’s competition, students argued a timely hypothetical appeal involving a trademark dispute between a Cuban company and a Dominican company that both sell cigars named for the same town in Cuba. Chicago-Kent entered the national round as Midwest regional champions.

Crigler, a third-year student, earned a bachelor’s degree in government from Georgetown University. Matuszewski, also a third-year student, studied biological sciences and Spanish at the University of Notre Dame.

Alumna Ashly I. Boesche ’04, a partner at Pattishall McAuliffe, coached the team, with help from Edward Lee, director of Chicago-Kent’s Program in Intellectual Property Law, and Kent Streseman, director of the law school’s Ilana Diamond Rovner Program in Appellate Advocacy, as well as attorney Sarah Aagaard ’14 and third-year students David Mucci and Eliot Gusdorf.

Established in 1990 by the International Trademark Association, the competition is named for the late Saul Lefkowitz, former chairman of the Trademark Trial and Appeal Board of the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, to honor his contributions to the development of trademark law and to the education of the trademark bar.

Chicago-Kent currently offers a J.D. certificate program in intellectual property law and in 2002 became the first American law school to offer a one-year LL.M. degree in international intellectual property law. U.S. News & World Report currently ranks Chicago Kent’s Program in Intellectual Property Law thirteenth in the nation.