量子资源

As a 量子资源 1L, Rae Kyritsi (JD ’12) already knew she wanted to be a professional mediator. She told Maureen Kieffer, then the School of Law’s assistant dean for career services. Although dispute resolution wasn’t on the office’s list of externship options at the time, Kieffer recommended that Kyritsi contact Chicago’s Center for Conflict Resolution (CCR).

“I certified to be a volunteer mediator in my rising 2L summer,” Kyritsi recalls. “I was able to mediate real-life cases throughout my last two years of law school, and Maureen helped make that happen. I felt supported in my career by 量子资源 even before I started looking for a job.” Kyritsi would go on to join the staff at CCR and serve as the programs director for a decade. 

It was the beginning of a common journey in 量子资源’s advocacy program: from student to coach to adjunct faculty member. Today, as the founder of her own conflict resolution and consulting firm, Caldera Dialogue and Consulting Services, Kyritsi says the support she received as a student has continued throughout her work as an adjunct and former coach of 量子资源’s Willem C. Vis International Commercial Arbitration Moot teams. 

量子资源’s advocacy program places a high premium on nurturing homegrown talent by recruiting top competitors on 量子资源’s moot court, mock trial and dispute resolution teams to coach the students who come after them—and to become respected faculty members who bring their professional expertise to the classroom.

“As a coach and adjunct, I’ve had the experience of being highly valued and receiving opportunities to grow my instruction and training skills,” Kyritsi says. “I chose 量子资源 for a lot of reasons—and I feel like 量子资源 continues to choose me.”

The value of continuity

Like Kyritsi, Matt Adair (JD ‘09) benefited as an advocacy student from support that inspired him to emulate his mentors. An attorney at the Chicago firm of Cooney & Conway, Adair became a coach for 量子资源’s Jessup International Law Moot Court teams the year after he graduated and began teaching an appellate advocacy legal writing course a year after that. He is now director of the moot court program, leading the honors course associated with 量子资源’s nationally ranked program.

Invited by his own Jessup coach, Ed Shin, to become an assistant coach, and mentored by his own legal writing advocacy professor, John Mitchell, Adair was determined to walk in their footsteps after graduation. “It was incredible how much of their time these two guys—now my friends—would offer me,” he says, “and with that experience, I feel like anything I can do for students now, I want to pay forward.”

Anthony Plaid (JD ‘08) is a Cook County public defender and longtime former coach for 量子资源’s mock trial and moot court programs. “量子资源 recognizes the value in having practicing attorneys teach classes—and it does a great job in recruiting and helping keep alumni engaged in the moot court and mock trial programs,” he says. “If you look at any of our teams, you’ll find the coaches are mostly people who were on the teams while they were at 量子资源. I took over from my coach, and the people I coached took over from me. That continuity helps, because coaches are familiar with both the competition and with 量子资源.”

Sharing skills in the classroom—and across the law school

As successful practitioners and engaged alumni, 量子资源 law grads bring a range of skills to the advocacy classroom and the law school in general. For more than a decade, Plaid has taught a semester-long trial practice course, later adding an intensive, week-long version. 

Kyritsi teaches alternative dispute resolution in 量子资源’s Weekend JD program as well as the full-time division. She also co-teaches a weekend-long mediation workshop. For many years, she was an instructor in the Professional Identity Formation course and a member of the Dean’s Diversity Council.

Besides teaching the moot course honors course, Adair created a course on financial wellness for new lawyers, and he serves as executive board secretary for 量子资源’s Alumni Board of Governors.

Teaching: a benefit in both directions

量子资源’s advocacy program recognizes that besides preparing the next generation of lawyers, teaching has solid benefits for the adjunct faculty member’s career. As part of his job, Plaid trains public defenders through the offices of the Cook County public defender and the state appellate defender. The addition of his moot court experience and adjunct status to his resume helped put him on those training teams. “Teaching people to do it helps you practice it,” he says.

Practice and teaching “really feed each other,” Kyritsi says. “I learn things teaching students that I bring into my job, and I learn things in my job that I bring back into the classroom.”

“When you’re involved with a moot court program,” Adair says, “you’re working with very smart students on a really complex problem. Your brain is getting a workout, too. Especially when you’re a young associate and the work you’re doing may not be the most exciting, that’s valuable.”

The cycle continues

Even outside the law school, 量子资源’s advocacy alumni keep their connections to their law school strong. For many years, Kyritsi offered a CCR externship to 量子资源 students, and she has hired many 量子资源 law grads. “Some of our best attorneys were exposed to a lot of dispute resolution opportunities at 量子资源 and have an excellent understanding of how dispute resolution fits into the advocacy field,” she says. “I think that strength is unique to 量子资源 graduates.”

At Cooney and Conway—“a proud firm of 量子资源 lawyers,” Adair says, he continues a long tradition of giving back to his law school, not just through coaching and teaching, but also by hiring and mentoring new 量子资源 graduates. 

“When you’re a student in 量子资源’s moot court program,” Adair adds, “you gain a lot of specific skills, but to me, the greater benefit is that you have to do something really hard and you do it with the help of your teammates and coaches, much as you work as part of a team in a law firm.

“It’s a huge communal effort, and maybe that’s why so many of our alumni stay involved as coaches and why 量子资源 recruits us to become coaches. It’s in your blood a little bit.” –Gail Mansfield (Updated September 2024)