number of student competitions
to Loyola. Hosting these events
continues to raise Loyola’s profile as a
center for advocacy.
Loyola is now slated to host a
national or international competition
virtually every year. In alternate years,
the School of Law is home base for
the INADR competition. Last spring,
the National Trial Competition for the
Midwest Region was cosponsored by
Loyola. Both the Thomas Tang and
Jessup International Moot
Court competitions were Loyola-
based last year, and every year,
the School of Law hosts a pre-Vis
competition program.
“When you host a competition,
the other schools come to your
home,” says Harris. “They see the
quality of alums’ judging and the
level of community support—and
that boosts the prominence of the
program nationally.”
Not just for
litigators
Although most of the students
who participate in student
competitions will become litigators,
mediators, or arbitrators, a fair
number of students take trial courses
and participate in competitions
just to build skills. “Even if you
enter transactional law, attorneys
can’t exist in an isolated box.
Communication is critical,” says
Khuans. “Learning to strategize, think
on my feet, read from people what
they’re really asking you, find nuance
in conversation—these skills have
changed how I think, not just in legal
scenarios, but in everyday life.”
Canty emphasizes that Loyola’s
competition program is designed
so that students can participate
at their own levels—“whether
they want careers in litigation or
just want to learn a little about it,”
she says. “We’re really teaching
how to approach the law, form a
position, and present that position
clearly and persuasively, both
orally and in writing. It’s effective
communication. That’s useful no
matter what type of legal career
you have.”
Adds Peluso, “Critical thinking,
problem solving, and being able
to articulate your thoughts in a
persuasive way are skills you’ll need
in practice no matter what you do.
Loyola’s competition program does
a great job of helping students start
to think that way.”
■
Acclaimed advocates
(CONTINUED FROM PAGE 9)
“Critical thinking,
problem solving, and
being able to articulate
your thoughts in a
persuasive way
are
skills you’ll need in
practice no matter
what you do.”
—ABBY PELUSO (JD ’07)
L
oyola’s School of Law
celebrates a special
milestone in its highly
regarded advocacy
program with the 20th anniversary
of the Philip H. Corboy Fellowship in
Trial Advocacy. The late Philip Corboy
(JD ’49), who was widely recognized
as one of the greatest trial lawyers of
his generation, created the fellowship
in 1995. Through this program,
about 200 Loyola law students have
received scholarship assistance and
some of the best advocacy training in
the country.
The 10 Corboy Fellows selected
annually represent Loyola in several
prestigious mock trial competitions
throughout the academic year.
Fellows are intensely coached
for several weeks before competition
by a group of talented public
defenders, state’s attorneys, United
States attorneys, and civil trial lawyers,
who give up most weeknights and
all day Saturday to provide one-on-
one training. Some of Loyola’s
most prominent graduates—Dan
Webb (JD ’70), the Honorable Gino
DiVito (LLB ’63), Todd Smith (JD ’76),
and the Honorable Lorna Propes
(JD ’75), among others—participate
as coaches in Corboy Fellowship
training and instruction.
The Honorable Thomas Donnelly
(JD ’86), an associate judge of the
Circuit Court of Cook County, has
directed the Corboy Fellowship
since its inception, donating
countless hours and endless energy
to the program. Another talented
practitioner who has been a
Corboy Fellowship mainstay is Amy
Thompson, an attorney supervisor at
the Multiple Defendant Division of
the Cook County Public Defender’s
Office. Though she’s not a Loyola
law graduate, Thompson has shown
an unwavering dedication to the
program since 1996, when Donnelly
recruited her to help coach. She also
has taught trial advocacy at Loyola as
an adjunct professor.
“The legal profession is very
small, and a lot of the people we
coach we’ll see again here in Chicago,”
Thompson says. “Besides giving them
the skills they need, we make sure
they learn how to be professional,
respectful, careful, and ethical. We’re
really influencing the careers of future
colleagues—I’ve had former students
try cases with and against me.”
Of the scores of Corboy students
with whom she’s worked, several
stand out as favorite memories
for Thompson. “One young man,
Tim O’Hara (JD ’02), came in and
immediately wanted to do a direct
examination he’d prepared. I wouldn’t
let him get very far; I kept stopping
him with every question he asked,”
she recalls. “He got really frustrated
and told me, ‘You don’t even know
what I can do!’ I told him to stop
playing a TV lawyer.
“He was mad at me, but he
went on to be one of our best people
in direct examination and later won
nine straight felony jury trials in
the Cook County Public Defender’s
Office. And to this day, he tells me
how wrong I was,”Thompson says,
laughing. O’Hara is now a public
defender in Denver.
Another former Corboy Fellow
will always have Thompson’s
admiration for competing with
what everyone thought was a cold,
but turned out to be an eardrum
that burst on the plane ride to the
competition. “Even though she had
a screaming pain in her head, Britni
Tweedy (JD ’10) won both rounds and
we advanced,”Thompson says.
Besides helping to develop
young trial lawyers, Thompson says
she finds the program benefits her
own career. “It helps my own trial
work to have to explain to people
how to form a question, build a cross-
examination, and create a story. The
Corboy Fellowship helps keep me
sharp,” she says.
“And it’s just fun—the students
are great,” she adds. “A good number
of our coaches are former Corboy
Fellows. They dedicate a lot of time
and energy while giving the program
a nice continuity.”
■
Corboy Fellowships
celebrate 20th anniversary
Loyola’s 2014-15 Corboy Fellows: Demetria Hamilton (first row, left), Andrea Williams; Michelle Thomas (second row, left), Koga
Ndikum-Moffor, Prya Murad, Jasmine Morton; Matthew McDonald (back row, left), Jonathan Armstrong, Joshua Cauhorn, and Ezrah Bryant
A LOYOLA TRADITION
Andrews Kurth Moot Court National
Championship team members Kristin
Kawaguchi (left) and Luisa Lewis
(right) with coaches Abby Peluso
(second from left) and Megan Canty.
Save the Date:
Tues: 10.20.15
Philip H. Corboy Lecture
in Advocacy
“How More Jury Trials Might
Save America”
Panelists will include Justice Mary Jane
Theis, Illinois Supreme Court; Professor
Robert Burns, Northwestern Law School;
and Professor Herschella Conyers,
University of Chicago Law School,
who will respond to remarks by Judge
Thomas Donnelly (JD ’86).
10
LOYOLA LAW
SPRING 2015
11
