NWSBA Mock Trial Winners can Receive Law School Tuition Waivers
Students from the nearly 30 high schools — including St. Charles East and St. Charles North — participating in the Northwest Suburban Bar Association’s upcoming Mock Trial Invitational have a lot more than bragging rights and personal satisfaction on the line.
They also have a chance to win up to $5,000 in law school tuition waivers from The John Marshall Law School in Chicago, which is helping sponsor the NWSBA Invitational.
The school will provide $100,000 in waivers to future law school students who are part of the top three teams in the Invitational. The contest is Feb. 26 at the Circuit Court of Cook County’s Third Municipal District courthouse in Rolling Meadows.
Students on the first-place team will win $5,000 each in waivers; members of the second-place team will win $3,000 in waivers and participants on the third-place team will receive waivers of $2,000 each.
The waivers — good for 20 years — will then be available to the recipients when they’re finished with college and enroll at John Marshall Law School.
“We’re acknowledging the work the students have done. We’re telling them we see a bright future for them in the practice of law. It gives them a new sense of hope and a new sense of self. That kind of inspiration is transformative,” said Rory Dean Smith, associate dean for outreach and planning.
The tuition waivers are part of the school’s program to aid and advance the racial and ethnic diversity of the legal profession, he said. “Law schools and the profession are eager to expand the diversity of the profession. One of the obstacles is the cost of law school,” he pointed out. This is the first year for the waivers for the Third Municipal District. The school has been providing partial tuition waivers for eight years, through a variety of programs at all educational levels, including elementary school.
“We are very excited and pleased at this generous offer from The John Marshall Law School,” said Lee F. DeWald, president of the NWSBA. “We have no doubt that there are future lawyers on our Mock Trial teams. Now some of them will get significant help paying the considerable costs of achieving that dream for their future. This is a wonderful, and welcome, gift.”
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