Brains, Bytes, and Bragging Rights: Foundry’s Annual Internet Law Trivia Turns 10
The Internet Law and Policy Foundry marked its 10th Annual Trivia Night with a nail-biting finale, a tiebreaker between two of the fourteen fiercely competitive teams battling for this year’s ultimate bragging rights. For the past decade, the Foundry has united the sharpest minds in tech law and policy for an evening of clever questions, spirited rivalries, and delightfully obscure facts. Since its debut in 2015, Trivia Night has drawn more than 2,000 participants from government, industry, law firms, advocacy groups, academia, and think tanks. This year, the tradition continued at the McDermott Will & Schulte offices, where an eager crowd once again brought their A-game and left it all on the table.
(pictures courtesy of Class 7 Fellows Beth Do and Uhunoma Edamwen.)
McDermott Will & Schulte’s Austin Mooney and Katelyn Ringrose welcomed attendees, following which Foundry President Nicole Timofeevski opened the evening by reflecting on a decade of community, innovation, and thought leadership built by early and mid-career professionals. Then, back by popular demand and in his signature smoking jacket, quizmaster Kurt Opsahl took the reins, deadpan wit intact and launched into a gauntlet of questions that challenged even the most seasoned tech policy veterans, spanning everything from Furby firmware to FOIA footnotes.
As always, the stakes were high. Last year’s champions, KOSA Nut Tree, took an early lead, but the game quickly turned unpredictable. With tensions rising and egos on the line, teams jockeyed for position while the judges, Foundry Fellows Eli Clemens, Idalia Gonzalez, and Aditi Rukhaiyar, along with Internet Education Foundation (IEF) interns Jacob Lindy and Shay Jessee held the line with steady rulings and sharp pencils.
In a dramatic twist, OpSec 100% (Morrison Foerster) and CCIA-AI-AI-O (CCIA) finished tied for first, forcing a sudden-death tiebreaker round. After a nail-biting finale, OpSec 100%, featuring Adi Kamdar, Sara Talebian, Billy Easley, Katie Hill, Max Katz, and team captain Carolyn Homer clinched the victory and took home the coveted title. CCIA-AI-AI-O’s stacked squad, led by inaugural Foundry Fellow Ali Sternburg, secured second, while hosts McDermott Will & Schulte rounded out the top three with Emery’s Last Stand, helmed by Austin Mooney and Katelyn Ringrose. Captained by Jake Laperruque, CDT returned this year as Love (AI)sland USA and claimed victory over “Best Team Name” for the second year in a row as determined by the panel of judges.
Special recognition goes to the scrappy trio from the Chamber of Progress, competing as Ctrl Alt Elite, who held their own against teams more than twice their size. Also, a shoutout to all the fierce contenders who brought brains, banter, and the spirit of trivia to the game: Gemini + Tonic, Open Model Heavyweights, [Verified Adults], Ignore All Previous Team Names, Booty v. Paxton, Forward-Deployed Autism, GOPAD, and the returning champs KOSA Nut Tree. Finally, props to the Smart Stray Cats, a last-minute entry with plenty of heart. You may have finished last, but with eight lives left, we’re betting on a comeback.
Thanks also goes out to Katelyn Ringrose and the staff at McDermott Will & Schulte, IEF staff Tim Lordan and Ryan Kirzner, as well as Class 6 and 7 Foundry Fellows Tricia McCleary, Hussain Rezai, Nicole Shekhovtsova, Pritika Magima, Sara Raza, Ashley Haek, Ananya Ramani, and particularly Events Committee Co-Chairs, Nicole Timofeevski and Linette Rivera-Rodriguez, for volunteering their time to help make this event possible. Thank you also to this year’s Trivia Night financial sponsors, CCIA and AWS.
Here’s to ten incredible years of trivia, community, and celebrating the weird and wonderful world of internet law. See you next year, smoking jackets optional!
About the Internet Law & Policy Foundry (The Foundry)
Created 10 years ago to address the growing demand by early and mid-career technology law and policy professionals for opportunities to engage with others across the field and apply their knowledge, the Foundry has since developed countless events, podcast episodes, articles, and networking opportunities to diversify internet law and tech industries and amplify incoming expert voices.
Led by dedicated Junior and Senior Fellows from around the world who are passionate about technology and disruptive innovation, the Foundry offers members a platform for professional development, constructive debate, and network-building within a cohort of skilled early career professionals and the greater tech policy and law community.
