Announcing the 2014 Mayer Brown Urban Debate Nationals Qualifier

The 2014 Mayer Brown Urban Debate Nationals Qualifier will take place on Saturday, March 8th, with an event schedule that runs from 8:00am until 7:30pm. This qualifying event for the 2014 NAUDL Urban Debate National Championship is being sponsored and hosted 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 schools will be invited to participate in this competition, from all four CDL conferences. The top two teams at the 2014 Mayer Brown Urban Debate Nationals Qualifier will represent Chicago at the 2014 NAUDL Urban Debate National Championship in Washington, D.C., on April 10th – 13th. Almost all of the trip’s expenses will be paid for.

The two CDL teams qualifying for the NAUDL Nationals coming out of Mayer Brown will be competing against the top urban debate teams from 18 other Urban Debate Leagues for the seventh Urban Debate National Championship. Chicago won the first three national championships (2008, 2009, 2010), and has advanced to the semi-finals in each of the past three years (2011, 2012, 2013), and last year also had a team in the final round; our teams will be attempting to return the national championship back to Chicago. (In four of the six national championships, the top speaker has been from the Chicago Debate League.)

The top two teams in each of the three CDL Varsity Conference Championships on February 21st – 22nd will be invited to the 2014 Mayer Brown Urban Debate Nationals Qualifier. The other four teams will be selected from the Regional Circuit Conference by the CDC. Invited teams will be required to confirm their participation by February 25th, though RCC teams will be asked to confirm earlier than that.

Each school participating will receive $400 in compensation. Each school will be required to supply one judge and will be on its own for transportation to and from the event. Three fine meals will be provided by Mayer Brown during the event.

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 pods, based on seedings determined by competitive performance during the 2013/14 season, as assessed by the CDC. Each team will debate every other team in its pod once, and each team will debate on the affirmative and the negative twice. Each round will feature two judges — a Mayer Brown Volunteer and a CDL judge. There is no previewing of any kind for this event, as there is no previewing at the 2014 NAUDL Urban Debate National Championship.

Let us know if you have any questions.

We thank Mayer Brown for its continued generous support of the Chicago Debate League.