Announcing the 2011 Mayer Brown CDL Nationals Qualifier

The 2011 Mayer Brown CDL Nationals Qualifier will take place on Saturday, April 2nd, with a schedule that runs from 8:00am until 7:30pm. This qualifying event for the 2011 Urban Debate National Championship is being sponsored and hosted once again by Mayer Brown, a leading global law firm with offices in key business centers all over the world, and headquartered here in Chicago, on the 45th floor at 71 S. Wacker Dr.

Ten teams will compete in the 2011 Mayer Brown CDL Nationals Qualifier — one team from each of the four RCC schools, and the top two teams in each of the other three Conferences, as determined by the results of each of their Conference Championships on February 25th and 26th (with one caveat: no more than one team from each school). Each school participating will receive a $375 incentive. Each school will be required to supply one judge. Each school will be on its own for transportation to and from the event. Three meals will be provided by Mayer Brown during the event.

Chicago Board of Education President Mary Richardson-Lowry, a partner at Mayer Brown, will be our official host.

The event will include a workshop orienting the debaters to the legal profession, and titled “Urban Debate and Diversifying the Legal Profession”.

The ten teams will be divided into two equal pods of five teams based on pre-event seeding. Each team will debate every other team in its pod once. Each round will feature two judges — a Mayer Brown Volunteer and a CDL judge. The team in each pod winning the most ballots, with speaker points functioning as a tie-breaker, will represent Chicago at the 2011 Urban Debate National Championship, April 15-17, in New York City, almost all expenses paid by the National Association for Urban Debate Leagues. Chicago will be competing to win its fourth consecutive Urban Debate National Championship, its seventh consecutive national title, if you count the three Fuqua Urban Debate Nationals held prior to 2008.

Let us know if you have any questions.