November 08, 2011

Loyola Chicago School of Law wins competition

by Pete Rosenbery

CARBONDALE, Ill. -- For the second time in three years, 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 Garrett Pape and Jenna Smith beat a team from South Texas College of Law in the Nov. 5 finals at Southern Illinois University Carbondale.  The title is the second for Loyola University Chicago School of Law in the competition’s 20-year history, and avenges a loss to 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.

The second-place team of Randy Ho, Brian Evans, and Margot Trevino received a $750 scholarship, also from the American College of Legal Medicine.  A second team from South Texas College of Law, based in Houston, finished third and also submitted the best legal brief.  The team of Andrew Bender, Kathleen Jo Muncie, and Amber Burton receives a $500 scholarship from the legal medicine foundation for finishing third, and another $500 from the same organization for best legal brief.  The Journal of Legal Medicine will also publish the brief.  Muncie also was the best preliminary round oralist and received a $250 scholarship from the law school’s Center for Health Law and Policy.

Thirty teams representing 21 schools competed over two days in the nation’s only health law moot court event.

“All of the teams were well prepared and many of the rounds were very, very close,” said W. Eugene Basanta, the Southern Illinois Healthcare Professor of Law and director of the law school’s Center for Health Law and Policy.  “The final round was well-argued by the top two teams, with all of the judges asking probing questions and putting the competing students to test in terms of their knowledge of the law and their policy arguments.”

Competitors argued a hypothetical case before the U.S. Supreme Court.   At issue were questions on whether a 200-year old federal statute, the Alien Tort Statute, applies to existing international pharmaceutical testing on humans.

The law school’s Center for Health Law and Policy, the SIU School of Medicine’s Department of Medical Humanities, the American College of Legal Medicine, and the American College of Legal Medicine Foundation co-sponsor the event.

Ritika Rodrigues, of the University of Alabama School of Law, won best overall oralist honors, and received a $500 scholarship from the legal medicine foundation.

Robert Lo and Samuel Derrick of the University of Pittsburgh School of Law submitted the second-place brief and received a $250 scholarship from the law school’s Center for Health Law and Policy.

Panelists for Saturday’s final round were Judge John D. Tinder, who serves on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit, based in Indianapolis, Ind.; Judge J. Phil Gilbert, a federal judge for the Southern District of Illinois; Dr. Gary Birnbaum, the current president of the American College of Legal Medicine; and Bethany Spielman, a professor of health law and medical ethics at the SIU School of Medicine.  She also has a cross appointment to the SIU School of Law.

Participating law schools were Baylor Law School; Boston University School of Law; Chicago-Kent College 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; New York Law School, New York, N.Y.; Northeastern University School of Law, Boston; 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 Alabama School of Law; University of Cincinnati College of Law; University of Illinois College of Law; University of Louisville Brandeis School of Law; University of Oklahoma College of Law; University of Pittsburgh School of Law; University of San Diego School of Law, and University of Tulsa College of Law.