WELCOME

Dear Participants, Faculty Advisors, and Friends:

Welcome and good luck to all of you who are participating in the ABA's Eleventh Annual National Criminal Justice Trial Advocacy Competition.

The Criminal Justice Section of the American Bar Association has been privileged to co-sponsor this award winning competition with The John Marshall Law School. This Competition is a jewel in the crown of the many programs and opportunities afforded members and friends of the Criminal Justice Section. This wonderful trial competition draws law students from all parts of the United States (and even from abroad) to both prosecute and defend a realistic and complicated criminal case. Each year well over a hundred experienced judges, lawyers, and academics give their time and wisdom to teaching, evaluating, and befriending law school students who have diligently labored to learn the art of becoming skilled trial attorneys.

As the chief prosecuting officer of Suffolk County, Massachusetts, as Chair of the Criminal Justice Section, and as a lawyer who has labored in the well of the courtroom for many years, I congratulate you for your efforts and wish you the very best in this Competition and in your legal careers. Of course, I also especially recommend that you become a member of the Criminal Justice Section. The Section is the one forum where all sectors of the criminal justice system -- judges, prosecutors, defense attorneys, and legal scholars -- work together to improve America's criminal justice system. I believe our work is important and that you would be well served to bring your talents to the Section and to join us in our ongoing work.

Dear Students and Advisors:

Welcome to The John Marshall Law School! For eleven years we have been delighted to host the Annual National Criminal Justice Trial Advocacy Competition. We proudly sponsor this award-winning event with the Criminal Justice Section of the American Bar Association. Each year at the onset of the Competition I reconfirm that The John Marshall Law School family is pleased to have our friends come to the law school so that we can display our Chicago hospitality.

This Competition, having received high praise and many accolades since its inception in 1991, is one of the highlights of the many advocacy and dispute resolution programs of The John Marshall Law School's Center for Advocacy and Dispute Resolution. We have a century-long tradition of educating and training future lawyers in the art of advocacy

On behalf of The John Marshall Law School's faculty, staff, student body, and alumni, I wish the best of luck to all of the teams. We hope that each of you finds the experience of competing against one another in the Eleventh Annual National Criminal Justice Trial Competition to be exciting and memorable, as well as academically rewarding.