November 06, 2012
Loyola Chicago School of Law wins moot court
CARBONDALE, Ill. -- For a second consecutive year, a team from Loyola University Chicago School of Law won the National Health Law Moot Court competition at Southern Illinois University School of Law.
The team of James D'Angelo and Carrie Gilbert defeated a team from South Texas College of Law in the Nov. 3 finals at Southern Illinois University Carbondale. The title is the third for Loyola University Chicago School of Law in the competition's 21-year history, and also the third in four years. The university beat a team from South Texas College of Law in last year's finals.
The winning team earned a $1,000 scholarship from the American College of Legal Medicine, and another $500 scholarship for the best legal brief. In addition, The Journal of Legal Medicine will publish the brief.
There were 30 teams representing 22 law schools in this year's competition -- the nation's only health law moot court event.
The law school's Center for Health Law and Policy, the School of Medicine's Department of Medical Humanities, the American College of Legal Medicine (ACLM), and the American College of Legal Medicine Foundation co-sponsor the event.
D'Angelo earned best overall oralist honors and received a $500 scholarship from the legal medicine foundation, and $250 from the law school's Center for Health Law and Policy for winning best preliminary round oralist honors.
The team of Adam Anthony, Elizabeth Edwards and William Wright of South Texas College of Law received a $750 scholarship, also from the ACLM, for finishing second. South Texas College of Law has seven overall titles, the last coming in 2010.
The team of Donald Burton and Wesley Walterscheid of Faulkner University School of Law in Montgomery, Ala., received a $500 scholarship from the legal medicine foundation for finishing third.
Joseph Cooch and Elizabeth Winchell of Hamline University School of Law in St. Paul, Minn., submitted the second-place legal brief and received a $250 scholarship from the law school's Center for Health Law and Policy.
This year's fictitious class action lawsuit before the U.S. Supreme Court involved whether there is a constitutional right to confidentiality and information privacy involving electronic patient medical records after a hacker illegally downloads material from a computer server of several community-operated municipal health clinics.
"The competition went very well," said W. Eugene Basanta, the Southern Illinois Healthcare Professor of Law and director of the law school's Center for Health Law and Policy. "Student-competitors, coaches, and judges all thought this year's problem was interesting, challenging and well-balanced. The judges all expressed how impressive the competing students were in their oral arguments, and how well our moot court board students did in hosting the competition."
Panelists for Saturday's final round were Michael S. Kanne, who serves on the U.S. 7th Circuit Court of Appeals; U.S. District Court Chief Judge David R. Herndon of the Southern District of Illinois, Dr. Kent Harshbarger, ACLM president and a forensic pathologist in the Montgomery County Coroner's Office in Dayton, Ohio, and Jane Bambauer, a visiting associate professor of law at the University of Arizona James E. Rogers College of Law, who authored this year's moot court problem.
Participating law schools were: Baylor Law School; Boston University School of Law; Belmont University College of Law, Franklin, Tenn.; DePaul University College of Law; Faulkner University Jones School of Law, Montgomery, Ala.; George Mason University School of Law; Georgia State University College of Law, Atlanta; Hamline University School of Law, St. Paul, Minn.; Indiana University School of Law-Indianapolis; Loyola University Chicago School of Law; Michigan State University College of Law; Northeastern University School of Law, Boston; Nova Southeastern University Shepard Broad Law Center, Davie, Fla.; St. Louis University School of Law; Seton Hall School of Law, Newark N.J.; South Texas College of Law, Houston; Suffolk University Law School, Boston; University of Notre Dame Law School, South Bend, Ind.; University of Pittsburgh School of Law; University of San Diego School of Law; University of Tulsa College of Law, and University of Washington School of Law.