The Summit Cup is hosted by the University of Denver in Denver, Colorado. This competition is an invitation only competition to schools that won advocacy competitions the year before. A “Golden Ticket” is sent to the 12 teams invited to participate. There are four (“tournament”) rounds, plus a Championship round. Teams may be comprised of 2, 3, or 4 students. Each team is guaranteed to go twice on each side. Trophies are awarded to the Top-4 teams, as well as to the Most Professional Team and four individual advocate awards. All rounds are power-matched, and Round 1 opponents are determined via a challenge ceremony. The host school provides each team with one “Assigned Woodshed Witnesses” — i.e., a witness is assigned to a particular team to serve as one of that team’s witnesses throughout the three-day event. An aspect that makes the Summit Cup special is its use of lay persons as jurors, to help emulate a real-life jury panel. Summit also employs “advocacy scoring” to help emulate a real-life juror’s impressions. The competition runs Thursday through Saturday night, when it ends with a festive gathering. Trial Boom serves as the official sponsor of The Summit Cup.
Congratulations to our University of Illinois College of Law Trial Team of Madelyn Foster, Allison Heil, Eliza Powers, and Mariana Renke who were semifinalists in the 2023 Summit Cup Trial Competition at University of Denver – Sturm College of Law. Very proud of this team for bringing trophies to Champaign in back-to-back competitions!