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NIU Law client counseling team places third

February 18, 2014
Third-year NIU Law students Samantha Brown and Daniel Kalina are pictured with their coach Professor Yolanda King. Brown and Kalina placed third in the American Bar Association's Regional Client Counseling Competition.

Third-year NIU Law students Samantha Brown and Daniel Kalina are pictured with their coach Professor Yolanda King. Brown and Kalina placed third in the American Bar Association’s Regional Client Counseling Competition.

The Northern Illinois University College of Law team of Samantha Brown and Daniel Kalina placed third in the American Bar Association’s Regional Client Counseling Competition.

The competition took place Feb. 15 at the University of Illinois College of Law.

Brown and Kalina, both third-year students, advanced to the final round out of 12 teams from various Illinois and Indiana law schools. The topic of this year’s competition was the First Amendment.

Each team, composed of two students, had 45 minutes to interview a client (played by an actor) during which the students were expected to elicit relevant information, outline the problem, identify legal and non-legal issues, and propose solutions or other means to resolve the problem.

Each team was then expected to conduct a post-consultation meeting, which could summarize the interview, indicate the scope of the legal work to be undertaken by each team member, and state the legal issues that should be researched.

The students were coached by professor Yolanda King.