From left: Jonathon Dotson, Hannah Nisson, Farishta Ahmadi, and Aima Mori

Two teams fromChicago-Kent College of Law at Illinois Tech earned wild-card invitations to the national finals of the 2017 Thomas Tang National Moot Court Competition. The Chicago-Kent teams will face off against high-performing teams from three other regions during the National Asian Pacific American Bar Association convention, held November 2 to 5 in Washington, D.C.

Representing Chicago-Kent are Farishta Ahmadi ’19 and Aima Mori ’19 on one team and Jonathon Dotson ’19 and Hannah Nisson ’19 on the other. Both teams advanced to the semifinals of the central regional tournament, held October 13 and 14 in Chicago.

Ahmadi graduated from Saint Louis University in Missouri with a B.S. in public health. Mori completed her bachelor’s degree in German and political science at Wayne State University. Nisson earned a B.A. in political science and history from Indiana University Bloomington. Dotson graduated with a bachelor’s degree in German from the University of Northern Colorado.

Chicago-Kent College of Law professors Michael Gentithes and Kari Johnson coached the teams, and several members of the Moot Court Honor Society helped the students prepare.

Sponsored by the National Asian Pacific American Bar Association Law Foundation, the competition is open to all students but is especially designed to reach out to Asian Pacific American law students, to provide them with an opportunity to showcase their writing and oral advocacy skills, and to provide scholarships.

The competition is named for the late Thomas Tang, a senior judge of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit. Judge Tang was a strong supporter of the bar association and its activities, including the creation of its moot court competition, which was renamed after his death in 1995.