Chicago-Kent Wins Championship and Best Brief Award at the 2016 Saul Lefkowitz Moot Court Regional Competition

The Chicago-Kent College of Law team of Stephanie Crigler and Kenneth Matuszewski will advance to the national finals of the 25th annual Saul Lefkowitz Moot Court Competition after winning the Midwest regional tournament February 6 in Chicago. Crigler and Matuszewski also won the regional tournament’s best brief award.

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From L to R: Kenneth Matuszewski and Stephanie Crigler.

Chicago-Kent and the second-place team from Loyola University Chicago School of Law will join the top two teams from four other regions in the national finals Saturday, March 12 at the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit in Washington, D.C.

This year, 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.

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.

The team is coached by Chicago-Kent alumna Ashly I. Boesche ’04, a partner at Pattishall McAuliffe, with assistance from Mickie Piatt, deputy director of the law school’s Program in Intellectual Property Law.

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. In 2014, the Chicago-Kent team of Sarah Aagaard ’14 and Benjamin Boroughf ’14 won the Midwest regional championship and best brief award and advanced to the national finals.