IIT Chicago-Kent student Elizabeth K. Camille wins 2010 SmithAmundsen Writing Award

Elizabeth K. Camille, a student at IIT Chicago-Kent College of Law, is the recipient of the 2010 SmithAmundsen Excellence in Legal Writing Award. The award is given annually to a student, selected by Chicago-Kent's legal writing faculty and law firm representatives, who has written the best first-year brief and who "adds to the diversity of the legal community."

Camille won the award for her appellate brief, Diane J. Schroer v. James H. Billington, a federal case dealing with a Title VII sex discrimination issue.

A 2012 J.D. candidate at Chicago-Kent, Camille is a member of the Moot Court Honor Society and Women in Law. She is also a member of the Education and School Law Committee of the Chicago Bar Association's Young Lawyers Society. Camille currently serves as a labor and employment law clerk for the Chicago Public Schools. She previously worked as a legal policy intern in the CEO's office on legal issues related to the school board's code of ethics.

Camille graduated cum laude with a bachelor of arts degree in strategic communication from Miami University in Ohio, where she also earned a master of arts degree in speech communications summa cum laude. Between 2007 and 2009, Camille served as a communications instructor at Miami University. She is the author of Playing the Gender Card against a Stacked Deck: A Comparison of Senator Hillary Clinton and Governor Sarah Palin's Gender-based Apologia in the 2008 Presidential Election, in Studies of Identity in the 2008 Presidential Campaign (Robert E. Denton ed., Lexington Books 2010).

"For the fourth year, we are very excited to continue our partnership with Chicago-Kent in order to advance important changes taking place in the legal community," says Larry Schechtman, SmithAmundsen's managing partner.

"When developing the scholarship, we looked closely at factors that would result in a more diverse pool of talented lawyers and decided that providing support to students who are excellent writers or are involved in trial advocacy is the best way to do this. As a firm, we are proud to support these future lawyers and Chicago-Kent."

SmithAmundsen LLC has more than 120 attorneys with offices in Chicago, Rockford, St. Charles, and Woodstock, Illinois, and Milwaukee, Wisconsin. SmithAmundsen's attorneys share a proficiency in a broad range of practice areas. As one of Chicago's premier litigation firms, its success is built upon a foundation of integrity, professionalism, and a commitment to exceeding client expectations. For more information on the firm, please visit www.salawus.com.

Chicago-Kent College of Law is the law school of Illinois Institute of Technology, a private, Ph.D.-granting institution. Chicago-Kent is consistently recognized for its groundbreaking legal writing program, and its moot court and trial advocacy teams have won numerous regional and national tournaments.

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