The College of Law’s Moot Court Society is set to compete against schools from around the world in this year’s External Moot Court Competitions in Chicago.

The Moot Court will send four teams from NIU to three competitions from Thursday through Saturday.

Kelly Reissman and Julie Proscia, both third-year law students, will compete for NIU.

“The competition offers experience in a real-world setting,” said Kim Shefts, a third-year law student and chief justice of the Moot Court Society. “It’s building NIU’s law reputation in the law community.”

The Moot competitions take place in actual courtrooms and are presided on by a panel of three judges and lawyers.

Teams work with fictional cases based on reality and try to appeal or have a previous judgment withheld at the Supreme Court level.

More real-world experience comes in the amount of preparation time for competition. The Moot team practices at least four times per week for the oral part of the competition, and has spent more than 200 hours preparing briefs for the written parts of the competitions.

“It gives me a chance to improve my speaking and writing skills to achieve my goal in being a litigator,” said Stephanie Shallenberger, a third-year law student and associate justice in the Moot Court Society.

Briefs are based in reality but are fictional. They presumably are issues that will happen in the future, but have not yet.

The issues that NIU’s Moot Court team will address this year in the competition are in regard to the First Amendment. Team members would not disclose any further information.

The team has high expectations heading into this year’s competition. Coming off of last year’s success of two awards for best brief, the team looks to continue its success in Chicago.

“We have some real knowledgeable people competing this year,” said Ryan Dowd, a third-year law student who will compete in the Chicago Bar Association’s Moot Court Competition from Nov. 7 to 9. Shefts, Shallenberger and fellow law student Steve Langley also will compete.

In the National Moot Court Competition, held Nov. 15 or 16, third-year students Jana Fisher and Nicole Rodriguez will compete.

For information about the competitions or the College of Law, call 753-9483 or visit www3.niu.edu/claw/student/moot/moot.htm.