Area law schools to compete for the Chicago Cup

Six Illinois law schools are co-sponsoring a mock trial competition from Thursday, November 9 to Saturday, November 11 and real trial lawyers and jurists are needed to judge the event.

The participating schools are UIC-Law, Chicago-Kent, DePaul, Loyola, U of I, and Northwestern. All competition will take place in the courtrooms of the four downtown law schools. (Northwestern is even offering free parking.) CLE credit is available.

Competition times are as follows:

Thursday, Nov. 9 at 6:00 p.m.
Friday, Nov. 10 at 10:00 a.m.
Friday, Nov. 10 at 2:00 p.m.
Saturday, Nov. 11 at 9:00 a.m.
Saturday, Nov. 11 at 1:00 p.m.

All judges must be in place 15 minutes before the scheduled start of competition.

This year's fact pattern is a public corruption case (which may remind those old enough of Operation Greylord):

In March of 2022, the FBI began “Operation Bluelady,” an ambitious investigation into allegations of corruption in the judicial system in the City of Wind. Operation Bluelady led to charges against numerous attorneys and judges in Wind. Among the first people caught up in the investigation was Blake Peters, a local attorney. Peters admitted to extensive involvement in bribery schemes related to traffic cases and agreed to cooperate with the FBI to collect evidence against others in an attempt to obtain a reduced sentence for his own crimes. Peters made successful cases against several attorneys. This case is the result of Peters’s attempts to collect evidence that Judge Mary Samuels was taking bribes. The FBI created a fictitious case and placed it on Judge Samuels’s docket. Peters then wore a wire and recorded conversations in which he attempted to bribe Judge Samuels. He then delivered an envelope including money for the bribe to Judge Samuels’s clerk, Trevor Flowers. Judge Samuels ultimately decided the case in Peters’s favor. Judge Samuels denies that any bribe took place and contends that she at most violated some ethical rules regarding ex parte communication with litigants.

Persons interested in volunteering should click here for a registration form. Questions about the event should be directed to joshua.jones@law.northwestern.edu or navarrok@uic.edu.