From left: Tracey Starck and Alex Halaska

Third-year students Alex Halaska and Tracey Starck will represent Chicago-Kent College of Law in the 2017 National Moot Court Competition national finals in New York January 30–February 2. The Chicago-Kent team placed second in the Region VIII tournament, held November 19–20 at Marquette University Law School in Milwaukee.

Halaska and Starck went undefeated in preliminary round arguments against Marquette University and the University of Wisconsin and then beat two teams from Northwestern University in the elimination rounds, before falling in a very close final round to a team from Loyola University Chicago. Chicago-Kent and Loyola will join 28 teams from 14 other regions for the national finals.

Caitlin Ajax, Dion Beatty, and Kyle Jacob, who competed on a second Chicago-Kent team, argued brilliantly as well but were eliminated by Loyola’s finalist team.

The National Moot Court Competition, sponsored by the American College of Trial Lawyers and the New York City Bar Association, is the nation’s oldest and largest appellate advocacy competition. This will be Chicago-Kent’s sixth consecutive appearance in the national finals and its 11th berth in the last 12 years. In 2008 and 2009, Chicago-Kent became the first law school to win back-to-back national championships in the tournament.

Halaska completed his bachelor’s degree in political science and philosophy at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Starck earned her undergraduate degree in materials science and engineering from Columbia University in New York.

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.