IIT Chicago-Kent Is Sending Two Teams to the Thomas Tang International Moot Court Competition Regional Tournament

IIT Chicago-Kent College of Law will send two teams to the 2013 Thomas Tang International Moot Court Competition regional tournament at Loyola University Chicago on October 18 and 19. The winning team will join the first-place teams from four other regions at the international finals November 7 to 10 in Kansas City.

The Thomas Tang International Moot Court Competition is sponsored by the National Asian Pacific American Bar Association (NAPABA) Law Foundation. The competition is open to all students but is especially designed to reach out to Asian Pacific American law students, to provide them with an opportunity to showcase their writing and oral advocacy skills and to provide scholarships.

Teams in this year's competition will consider whether the Sixth Amendment right to effective assistance of counsel is violated by a state statute that precludes a trial court from letting a public defender withdraw on the basis of excessive workload or lack of resources. Teams will also consider if Fifth Amendment due process is violated by imposing a six-month suspension for the public defender's refusal to comply with a court order to represent a criminal defendant, and whether First Amendment freedom of expression is violated by imposing a public reprimand for the attorney's public statements regarding that refusal.

Second-year students Peter Brierton and Alexis Ramirez will compete on one of IIT Chicago-Kent's teams. Team member Brierton completed his undergraduate education in political science with a minor in sociology from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Teammate Ramirez graduated cum laude from Loyola University Chicago with degrees in political science and international studies.

The other team will comprise third-year student Chris Ktenas and second-year student Jing Zhang. Team member Ktenas earned a degree in information technology from Illinois State University. Teammate Zhang graduated from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill with a double major in communications and environmental studies and a minor in science.

The competition is named for the late Thomas Tang, a senior judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit. Appointed by President Jimmy Carter in 1977, Judge Tang was the first Chinese American named to the federal judiciary. During his 18 years on the Ninth Circuit, he wrote more than 400 opinions on American Indian law, labor practices, and individual rights. Judge Tang was a strong supporter of NAPABA and its activities, including the creation of its international moot court competition, which was renamed after his death in 1995.

A native of Phoenix, Judge Tang served in the United States Army during World War II and the Korean War. He earned his undergraduate degree from the University of California at Santa Clara and his law degree from the University of Arizona College of Law. After a brief stint in private practice, Judge Tang served as deputy county attorney of Maricopa, Arizona, and as assistant attorney general of Arizona. He was elected to the Phoenix City Council and spent seven years as a judge of the Superior Court of Arizona. Judge Tang returned to private practice prior to his appointment to the federal bench.

Founded in 1888, IIT Chicago-Kent College of Law is celebrating "125 years of distinctive legal education." IIT Chicago-Kent 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. In 2008, IIT Chicago-Kent became the first law school to win both the National Trial Competition and the National Moot Court Competition in the same year. In 2009, Chicago-Kent successfully defended its championship in the National Moot Court Competition.