The IIT Chicago-Kent College of Law Mock Trial team, comprising Hazel Gumbs (of Anguilla), Rachel Oliver, Johanna Ojo and Brittany Pritchett, has advanced to the national finals of the National Black Law Students Association’s (NBLSA) Thurgood Marshall Mock Trial Competition. IIT Chicago-Kent, one of the top two teams in the Midwest Regional Tournament, held from February 15 to 19 in Columbus, Ohio, will join eleven teams in the national finals.
IIT Chicago-Kent team member Hazel Gumbs, a third-year student, earned her undergraduate degree from Howard University with a double major in Economics and Political Science; and her Master’s Degree in Public Policy from the George Washington University. Her teammates: Rachel Oliver, a second-year student, is a graduate of Shaw University with a major in International Relations; Johanna Ojo, a second-year student, graduated from the University of Pittsburgh, where she majored in Political Science; and Brittany Pritchett, a third-year student, completed her undergraduate education at Stephen F. Austin State University with a double major in Business Administration and Spanish.
The IIT Chicago-Kent team is coached by Cook County Circuit Court Judges Israel Desierto and Maxwell Griffin Jr.
The NBLSA Mock Trial Competition, established in 2002, is named after the Honorable Thurgood Marshall, the first African-American justice appointed to the U.S. Supreme Court. Known for his work as special counsel for the NAACP in the landmark 1954 decision in Brown v. Board of Education, Justice Marshall amassed an enviable trial record. As a civil rights attorney, he won 29 of the 32 cases he argued before the U.S. Supreme Court between 1940 and 1961. As a member of the U.S. Court of Appeal for the Second Circuit – from 1961 to 1965 – he made 112 rulings none of which was reversed on certiorari by the U.S. Supreme Court. Appointed U.S. Solicitor General in 1965, Justice Marshall won 14 of the 19 cases he argued on behalf of the government. In 1967, he was elevated to the U.S. Supreme Court, by President Johnson, where he served until his retirement in 1991. Justice Marshall died in 1993.
IIT Chicago-Kent College of Law 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. The school established a Chapter of NBLSA in 1974. IIT Chicago-Kent’s trial advocacy teams have won numerous individual student honors and regional and national competitions, including the 1988, 2007 and 2008 National Trial Competition Championships.
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.
Hazel Gumbs, the daughter of Ensor and Meridith Gumbs, of South Hill, is proud to represent her school (in this year’s competition) from where she will graduate with her law degree in December 2012.
