IIT Chicago-Kent to participate in the 2014 August A. Rendigs Jr. National Products Liability Moot Court Competition
Second-year IIT Chicago-Kent College of Law students Amany Awad, Ryan Hanneken and Elangie Lozada will participate in the 27th annual August A. Rendigs Jr. National Products Liability Moot Court Competition March 28 to 30 in Cincinnati.
Hosted by the University of Cincinnati College of Law, the August A. Rendigs Jr. National Moot Court Competition is the only national tournament exclusively devoted to products liability law. The competition is named for August A. Rendigs Jr. (1895–1988), one of Cincinnati's most respected trial lawyers. Nineteen teams from ABA-accredited law schools will compete.
The students will argue Volck Medical Devices, Inc., v. Geoffrey Levine and Kristin Levine, a hypothetical products liability case involving the manufacturer of a male contraceptive device. At issue is whether federal law preempts state tort law as a "failure-to-warn" claim in a products liability lawsuit when the Medical Device Amendments of 1976 of the Food, Drug and Cosmetic Act expresses or implies the federal preemption.
Team member Amany Awad graduated from the New Jersey Institute of Technology with a bachelor's degree in biology. Teammate Ryan Hanneken earned a degree in political science and government from Miami University. Teammate Elangie Lozada completed her undergraduate education in communications studies at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. The team is coached by Professor Kent Streseman, director of IIT Chicago-Kent's Ilana Diamond Rovner Program in Appellate Advocacy; Colette Kopon '14; and Scott Lechowicz '14.
Founded in 1888, IIT Chicago-Kent College of Law is the law school of Illinois Institute of Technology, a private, Ph.D.-granting institution with programs in engineering, psychology, architecture, business, design and law. IIT Chicago-Kent is the only law school ever to win the National Trial Competition and the National Moot Court Competition in the same year (2008), and the first school to win the National Moot Court Competition in two consecutive years (2008 and 2009).
