Student News

Teammates Esteban Valtierra ’23 and Ben Levine ’23 advanced to the semifinals and won best brief in the University of Notre Dame Law School’s Religious Freedom Moot Court Competition in October 2021.

In her first law school competition, Kaitlyn Kloss ’23 successfully argued her way past five opponents to win Chicago-Kent’s 30th annual Ilana Diamond Rovner Appellate Advocacy Competition in November 2021.

Zoe Appler ’22, Annora Alfonso ’23, Razaul Haque ’23, and Cole Gunter ’23 were finalists in the 2021 National Civil Trial Competition in November 2021. Sixteen teams competed; Appler also won best closing argument for the entire tournament.

Cole Gunter ’23 won best advocate at the Drexel Battle of the Experts, hosted by the Drexel University Thomas R. Kline School of Law in September 2021.

Jacob Skolnik ’22 and Zelpha Williams ’22 were regional champions in the NYC Bar’s National Moot Court Competition, and went on to earn top awards at the nationals in February 2022. Both were awarded the competition’s best petitioner brief award; Skolnik earned the best oralist award; and Skolnik was ranked the second-best oral advocate and Williams the fourth-best out of the 52 students who competed.

Hannah Bucher ’22 and Mia Hayes ’22 made it to the final round of the Hunton Andrews Kurth Moot Court National Championship, a January 2022 competition that pitted the nation’s top 16 moot court teams against each other. The pair also won the competition’s best brief title, and Bucher was named the competition’s third-best speaker.

A fledgling team that included Catherine Arnprieste ’23, Sandra Khouri ’23, Claire Bullington ’24, Jennifer Dickey ’24, and Jenny Jung ’24 reached the finals in the first-ever National Trial League trial advocacy competition, which required the team to research and argue eight separate court cases over several months, ending in February 2022.

Zoë Appler ’22 and Emily Salomone ’22 went undefeated to win the regional bout of the 2022 Midwest Championship of the American College Of Lawyers/Texas Young Lawyers Association National Trial Competition, which took place in February 2022.

Hayley Loufek ’23 and Ryan Martin ’23 were regional co-champions of the American Bar Association’s National Appellate Advocacy Competition. In total, 24 teams competed in the early March 2022 regional bout. HONORS, AWARDS, AND FELLOWSHIPS

A paper by Xavier Harris ’23, “The Miseducation of a Divided Nation: An Analysis of Laws Banning Critical Race Theory in K-12 Public Schools,” won Chicago-Kent College of Law’s 2022 A More Perfect Union writing competition, a new racial justice writing competition hosted by the law school. His 2022 paper explored the constitutionality of a slate of recent state laws banning critical race theory in elementary and high school classrooms. Harris argued that such laws will have a chilling effect on free speech, and concluded that courts, when deciding the constitutionality of such laws, should take into account “values underscored by the Supreme Court in early First Amendment cases. Namely that access to different perspectives ‘prepares students for active and effective participation in the pluralistic, often contentious society in which they will soon be adult members.’”

The competition’s inaurgural winning paper, by Chloe Bell ’22 in late 2021, entitled “The Lasting Impact of Housing Discrimination on Industrial Development, Environmental Justice, and Land Use,” explored the

Marshan Allen ’26 was sentenced to life in prison without parole at the age of 15; he successfully appealed to earn his freedom a quarter-century later; and was later married by the Illinois Supreme Court judge who granted his appeal. This year Allen received the Honorable Abraham Lincoln Marovitz Scholarship to receive a full-tuition law scholarship to attend Chicago-Kent College of Law. The scholarship is awarded every three years to one incoming student exhibiting financial need and a strong dedication to public service.

Allen, who was sent to prison for his role in a double murder, spent much of the time after his release in 2016 traveling to Chicago high schools. There, he would speak at assemblies about his experiences, and urge students to make good decisions in their lives. He won the Chicago Bar Association Liberty Bell Award in 2019 after becoming a notable advocate of criminal justice reform, first working for the Restore Justice Foundation in Chicago and now as vice president of advocacy and partnerships for Represent Justice in Los Angeles, where he works virtually with both prosecutors and legislators on justice reform.

lasting impact of federal redlining in Chicago neighborhoods, from before the Great Depression to today. She researched old federal Home Owners’ Loan Corporation maps dating to the 1930s, which show the Chicago neighborhoods that had been redlined after the Great Depression. The maps, which ostensibly signaled to mortgage lenders the areas of “risk,” specifically mentioned race and ethnic identity, shading areas in red (the most “risky”) where a population was minority-majority. She then outlined how such areas were targeted for land use that residents would see as detrimental, such as heavy industry and hazardous waste dumps.

Two Chicago-Kent College of Law students and a Chicago-Kent alumna earned top honors in the Illinois Local Government Lawyers (ILGL) Association’s 2022 writing competitions, with research and analysis on such timely issues as noncitizens voting in school board elections and the prevention of cyberattacks. Kelby Roth ’22 and Andrew White ’22 won the ILGL’s top student writing contest, the Franklin W. Klein competition, for their article, “Equality, Enfranchisement, and Citizenship: How Expansion of the Electorate in Public School Board Elections Will Affect Illinois Attorneys.” Additionally, Monica Pechous ’20 won the ILGL’s practitioner writing contest for her article, “Cyber Cities—The Role of Illinois Municipalities in Preventing and Managing Cyber Attacks.”

Kelby Roth Andrew White Elizabeth Horwitz ’23 and Evan Turcotte ’23 both received the Harold J. and Nancy F. Krent Excellence Award for ranking at the top of their class in late 2021. The prize is awarded annually to the student or students who rank at the top of the combined first-year full-time and second-year part-time classes upon their return to Chicago-Kent College of Law for the next academic year.

A Chicago-Kent College of Law labor and employment law student who specialized in government and community service work was awarded the 2022 Sandra P. Zemm Prize in Labor and Employment Law. Erin Monforti ’22 received the prize for her essay highlighting “my love for representing employers in the local government context.” Over the past year at Chicago-Kent, Monforti has worked for Ancel Glink, P.C., a Chicago-based firm that represents small- and mid-size municipalities that often don’t have their own staff attorneys. She also worked for the City of Chicago’s Mayor Office, and did public service work for several area nonprofits.

Grace Quigley ’24 was awarded a 2022 Peggy Browning Fund Fellowship, an award designed to educate and inspire students considering a career in labor law. She was one of a select few to receive the prestigious national fellowship to conduct legal work for a national labor union this summer. Quigley is working for the Washington, D.C., office of United Food and Commercial Workers International Union. There, she represents workers from across the United States and Canada, advising their local unions on legal strategies and conducting legal research on a variety of workplace issues.

A paper exploring easier ways to attain legal remedies against employers who improperly disclose medical information won Chicago-Kent College of Law’s premier labor and employment law writing competition.

Ricardo Santiago ’22 won the Mary Rose Strubbe Labor & Employment Law Writing Prize for his paper titled “PIPA+: An Argument for the Creation of a Private Cause of Action to Protect Against Disclosure.” His paper argued that federal legislation inadequately protected the disclosure of private data within the workplace, rather than between an employer and outside parties. Santiago concluded that legislation such as the Illinois Biometric Information Protection Act were examples of good remedies, in that they allowed the aggrieved to seek recovery under common law without proving actual damages.

Katherine Hanson ’22, who gave up her successful hair salon business to become a standout student at Chicago-Kent College of Law, was named a 2021 Law Student of the Year by National Jurist and PreLaw Magazine. The publications named 10 Law Students of the Year in their spring 2022 issues. The honor recognizes students “who have made outstanding contributions to their law schools and their communities” in 2021. Law schools across the country were each asked to nominate one student for the award. Hanson became editor of the Chicago-Kent Law Review, served on the executive board of Chicago-Kent’s Student Bar Association, and proved to be a powerful writer. She won the Mary Rose Strubbe Labor & Employment Writing Prize and placed second in the Louis Jackson Memorial National Student Writing Competition. Hanson is also working to establish a 501c3 nonprofit that seeks to address the needs of J.D. students with families nationwide by offering a supportive network and building a scholarship fund. The network will include a listing of local organizations and scholarships, information on Title IX, and other resources. Enrique Espinoza ’22 was awarded the singular American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations (AFL-CIO) Fellowship for 2022, a fellowship identified by Chicago-Kent College of Law Professor of Law Emeritus Martin Malin as “probably the most competitive and prestigious union labor law position in the United States.” Only one year-long fellowship is offered by the organization each year, and this makes the third time in four years it has gone to a Chicago-Kent student or graduate, the AFL-CIO confirmed. Since September Espinoza has been assisting with briefs filed in the U.S. Supreme Court, the federal courts of appeals, and the National Labor Relations Board; monitoring filings with the National Labor Relations Board and in the courts to identify important cases; helping to advise the officers and departments of the AFL-CIO; and working with the AFL-CIO Union Lawyers Alliance. An immigrant from Mexico, Espinoza worked in the hospitality industry for decades before enrolling at Chicago-Kent. What he experienced over those years—labor conflicts, he says, where employees were often too afraid to speak out—made him want to explore the law.

MORE STUDENT HIGHLIGHTS

A half-dozen Chicago-Kent College of Law students decided to spend their 2021 winter break tackling one of the toughest pro bono jobs out there: helping survivors of domestic violence and sexual assualt file emergency protective orders. While interning for Chicago-based nonprofit Ascend Justice, the six students interviewed clients, helped them complete court documents, and wrote affidavits for the Circuit Court of Cook County. Ascend Justice officials noted the majority of their “winter immersion” interns this year were from Chicago-Kent. The interns, who volunteered anywhere from one to three weeks, included Blythe Pabon ’24, Noah Ramirez ’24, Sylvia Durlacher ’24, Shannon Cottrel ’22, Jaylin McClinton ’22, and Morgan Puckett ’22.