November 05, 2014
Media Advisory – National Health Law Moot Court
SIU Carbondale will host the National Health Law Moot Court Competition on Friday, Nov. 7, and Saturday, Nov. 8, in the Hiram H. Lesar Law Building. A total of 31 teams from 22 law schools will participate.
The teams will debate an employer’s obligation under the American with Disabilities Act to reassign employees with disabilities to open positions for which they are qualified. This is the 23rd year for the event.
Reporters, photographers and camera crews are welcome to cover the moot court finals on Saturday. Organizers ask that reporters and cameras be unobtrusive and in place before the finals begin at 4 p.m. For more information before the event contact Professor Cheryl L. Anderson at 618/453-5634, Assistant Professor Jennifer A. Brobst at 618/453-8702, or Alicia Ruiz, the law school’s director of communication and outreach, at 618/453-8700.
This year’s fictitious lawsuit before the U.S. Supreme Court also examines the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission’s duty to conciliate claims before initiating litigation. Both issues involve a split among the appellate courts and the issue over conciliation is currently pending before the U.S. Supreme Court, said W. Eugene Basanta, the Southern Illinois Healthcare Professor of Law emeritus.
“As the new director of the Center for Health Law and Policy, it is exciting to be able to support this highly regarded and unique national competition, which has thrived under the leadership and collaboration of SIU law professors Gene Basanta and Cheryl Anderson, the SIU School of Medicine, and the American College of Legal Medicine,” Brobst said. “Our law students at SIU are fortunate to have direct and repeated exposure every year to thought-provoking health law moot court problems.”
Preliminary rounds begin at 11 a.m. Friday with 16 teams advancing to compete Saturday. Competition resumes at 9:30 a.m. with quarterfinals at 11:30 a.m., semifinals at 2 p.m., and the finals at 4 p.m.
The final round judges are: Nancy J. Rosenstengel, a 1993 SIU School of Law alumnus and a judge for the U.S. District Court in the Southern District of Illinois, Catherine D. Perry, chief judge for the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Missouri, Thomas McLean, president of the American College of Legal Medicine, and William Sherwood, vice president and legal counsel for Southern Illinois Healthcare.
Participating law schools are: Belmont University College of Law, Franklin Tenn.; Chicago-Kent College of Law; Drexel University School of Law; Faulkner University School of Law, Montgomery, Ala.; 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; Notre Dame Law School, Notre Dame, Ind.; Nova Southeastern University Saint. Louis University School of Law; Seton Hall School of Law, Newark N.J.; South Texas College of Law, Houston; Suffolk University Law School, Boston; Texas Tech University School of Law, Lubbock, Texas; Thomas M. Cooley Law School, Lansing, Mich.; UC Hastings College of Law, San Francisco; University of Colorado; University of Maryland School of Law, Baltimore; University of Pittsburgh School of Law Health Law Clinic; University of Tulsa College of Law, Tulsa, Okla., and University of Washington School of Law, Seattle, Wash.
Additional information on the event is available on the competition website.
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.