As published by the Daily Herald
A team of third-year law students from John Marshall took top honors at the 2016 Chicago Bar Association /YLS Moot Court competition. Shannon Buckley (’17) and Marco Rodriguez (’17) won First Place and their brief was ranked third best. Daniel Saeedi (’08) coached the winning team.
Buckley and Rodriguez beat out 30 other teams from 21 law schools around the country to win the annual competition which, this year, focused on issues of preemption and subject matter jurisdiction. Specifically, the teams argued both sides of the questions of whether a city ordinance regulating rental of housing to undocumented immigrants is preempted by federal law and whether federal courts have subject matter jurisdiction to review denial of naturalization while removal proceedings are pending. The federal circuits are split in both issues.
Saeedi of Taft Stettinius & Hollister set up several rounds of mock arguments for the students with lawyers from his firm, but credits the students’ preparation and work for the win. “Marco and Shannon are incredibly smart, talented and hard-working. They have a strong willingness to learn and adapt which not only takes place in these competitions but in the real world.”
Buckley is from Orland Park, Illinois and received her B.A. in English and Communication from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Rodriguez is from Chicago and holds a B.A. in Political Science from Dominican University in River Forest.
Another John Marshall team consisting of students Kimberly Gleeson and Ryan Morton were octo-finalists in the competition.
The CBA/YLS annual moot court competition this year was held November 10 -12 at the Dirksen Federal Building in Chicago.