Writing Competitions

Eligibility/topics

Any J.D. and graduate (L.L.M. or S.J.D) law students enrolled at any time between August 15, 2012 and August 15, 2013. Papers must deal with employee benefits topics. As an illustrative example, a paper might address legal issues involving health benefits, pensions, 401(k) plans, severance, executive compensation, claims, appeals, current or former spouses’ or domestic partners’ benefits, collectively-bargained benefits, benefits in bankruptcy, ERISA litigation, fiduciary obligations or the tax treatment of benefits/contributions.

Each winner will be honored during the College’s annual black tie dinner on November 9, 2013 in New Orleans. They will receive a plaque and an employee benefits treatise published by BNA Books. If deemed suitable by the editors, one or more of the winning papers will be published by the BNA Pension and Benefits Reporter, the BNA Tax Management Compensation Planning Journal or another employee benefits publication. The winning papers will also be distributed to the Fellows of the American College of Employee Benefits Counsel, who are experienced attorneys that have made significant contributions to the advancement of the employee benefits field in a wide range of practice settings including law and consulting firms, universities, labor unions, advocacy organizations and government agencies throughout the United States. For information concerning the American College of Employee Benefits Counsel, contact Peter Kelly a peter.kelly@bcbsa.com or consult our website at www.acebc.com.

Named for the late Tax Court Judge Theodore Tannenwald, Jr., and designed to perpetuate his dedication to legal scholarship of the highest quality, the Tannenwald Writing Competition is open to all full- or part-time law students, undergraduate or graduate. Papers on any federal or state tax-related topic may be submitted in accordance with the Competition Rules found at www.tannenward.org.

The deadline for submitting papers is 9 p.m. EST, July 1, 2013. Papers should be mailed to Tannenwald Foundation, 700 Sixth Street, Ste. 200, Washington, DC 20001, attn: Melanie Moore.

For additional information, please contact Nancy Abramowitz at 202-274-4164 or nabramo@wcl.american.edu.

The National Association of Women Lawyers (NAWL) is a national voluntary legal professional organization whose mission is the advancement of women in the legal profession and women’s rights. Since 1899, NAWL has served as an educational forum and active voice for the concerns of women lawyers in this country and abroad. NAWL continues to support and advance the interests of women in and under the law, and in so doing, supports and advances the social, political, and professional empowerment of women. Through its programs and networks, NAWL provides the tools for women in the profession to advance, prosper and enrich the profession. NAWL has established the annual Selma Moidel Smith Law Student Writing Competition to encourage and reward original law student writing on issues concerning women and the law. The rules for the competition are as follows:

Entrants should submit a paper on an issue concerning women’s rights or the status of women in the law. The most recent winning paper was “All Things Being Equal, Women Lose. Investigating the Lack of Diversity Among the Recent Appointments to the Iowa Supreme Court” written by Abigail Rury, Michigan State University School of Law.

Essays will be accepted from students enrolled at any law school during the 2012-13 school year. The essays must be the law student author’s own work and must not have been submitted for publication elsewhere. Papers written by students for coursework or independent study during the Summer, Fall or Spring semesters are eligible for submission. Notwithstanding the foregoing, students may incorporate professorial feedback as part of a course requirement or supervised writing project.

FORMAT: Essays must be double-spaced in 12-point font, Times New Roman font type. All margins must be at least one inch. Entries must not exceed fifteen (15) pages of text, excluding notes, with footnotes placed as endnotes. Citation style should conform to The Bluebook – A Uniform System of Citation. Essays longer than 15 pages of text, excluding notes, or which are not in the required format may not be read.

JUDGING: NAWL Women Lawyers Journal® designees will judge the competition. Essays will be judged based upon content, exhaustiveness of research, originality, writing style, and timeliness.

QUESTIONS: Questions regarding this competition should be addressed to the chair of the Writing Competition, Professor Jennifer Martin at jmartin@stu.edu.

SUBMISSION AND DEADLINE: Entries must be received by May 1, 2013. Entries received
after the deadline will be considered only at the discretion of NAWL. Entries must provide a cover letter providing the title of your essay, school affiliation, email address, phone number and mailing address. Entries must be submitted in the following format: email an electronic version (in Microsoft Word or PDF format) to jmartin@stu.edu.

AWARD: The author of the winning essay will receive a cash prize of $500. NAWL will also publish the winning essay in NAWL’s Women Lawyers Journal in the summer of 2013. http://library.constantcontact.com/download/get/file/1102356594523-287/2013National+Association+of+Women+Lawyers+Selma+Moidel.pdf.

The following rules and regulations apply:

1. Any student regularly enrolled in and attending classes at an accredited law school in the United States or Canada is eligible to enter. Submission of a paper, with one cover page and the completed entry form constitutes entry. Essays submitted for the 2013 competition MUST be under the topic of “Comparing Hearsay Rules in Different Courts.” Essays determined not to meet this qualification will be not evaluated.

2. The cover page of the paper must be submitted in a separate document and shall include the title and the author’s name, current mailing and e-mail addresses, and telephone number. The author’s name should appear only on the cover page and the entry form. The title and page number must appear at the top of each page of the paper.

3. All papers shall be the original, unpublished work of an individual student, but may have been prepared as a course assignment. Normal guidance of law school faculty is permitted.

4. Entry grants AJA the right of first publication of the paper and is agreement to hold AJA and its members harmless from, and to indemnify them for, any and all damages and costs relating to copyright infringement or plagiarism.

5. Papers become the property of the American Judges Association and may be published in the Court Review.

6. Papers should double-spaced and 10-25 pages in length. Extensive footnoting or end noting is discouraged and is included in the paper’s length. Citations, footnotes, and endnotes should be in accord with the current edition of A Uniform System of Citation.

7. Papers will be evaluated considering: writing quality and clarity; the interest of the topic and content to a broad segment of the judiciary; analysis and reasoning; timeliness, originality, and creativity; quality and use of research; and compliance with these rules.

8. Papers will be evaluated, and prizes awarded, at the sole discretion of a panel of AJA members who will have no knowledge of the author’s name or law school.

9. Winners will be publicly announced at the Association’s 2013 Annual Educational Conference in Hawaii, September 22-27, and thereafter notified by mail. All law schools and authors will also be notified by mail.

Entries must be e-mailed or postmarked no later than June 1, 2013, and sent to aja@ncsc.org, or mailed to:

AJA Essay Competition, 300 Newport Ave., Williamsburg, VA 23185.

http://aja.ncsc.dni.us

The Judge John R. Brown Scholarship Foundation is pleased to announce the seventeenth annual Brown Award to recognize Excellence in Legal Writing in the United States. Any law student currently enrolled in an accredited law school in the United States seeking a JD is eligible to receive the Award. This year the stipend for the winner is $10,000. The 2009 Award was presented to Dalie Jiminez of Harvard Law School for her paper, The Distribution of Assets in Consumer Chapter 7 Bankruptcy Cases.

In order to be considered, four copies of a current legal writing must be submitted to the Foundation c/o Kenneth G. Engerrand, Brown Sims, P.C., Tenth Floor 1177 West Loop South, Houston, Texas, 77027-9007 with a letter of recommendation by a law school faculty member or legal professional other than the author of the paper. Only one paper may be sponsored by any faculty member or legal professional, and only one paper may be submitted on behalf of any student. The submission must be postmarked no later than May 14, 2010, and the package must contain a separate sheet containing the title of the paper; the name, physical address, telephone number and email address of the student; and the name of the faculty member or legal professional who is sponsoring the paper. Final judging will be performed by a panel consisting of a law school dean, a federal judge and a law a school professor who will be appointed by the Foundation. This year there is no page limitation or restriction on the topic except that the writing must be on a legal subject. The Foundation will not return any material submitted to the Foundation. The recipient of the Brown Award will be notified by October 31, 2013.

www.brownsims.com/about-brown-sims/affiliations/judge-john-r-brown-award

The competition is open to all law students at U.S. and Canadian law schools. Entries should concern any issue within the general category of legal ethics. Entries must be original, unpublished work and must not exceed 50 pages, including notes. Submissions will be judged by a panel of faculty of the Notre Dame Law School. All entries must be received before 5 p.m., Friday, April 30, 2010.
 
All entries should be submitted to:
 

Smith-Doheny Legal Ethics Writing Competition
Notre Dame Law School
P.O. Box 780
Notre Dame, Indiana 46556
(575) 631-6749
Fax (574) 631-3980
Email: sumption.1@nd.edu

 
For complete rules, please visit http://www.nd.edu/~ndlaw/writing_competitions/smith_doheny.pdf.

Co-sponsored by:

The Environmental Law Institute The American Bar Association Section of Environment, Energy, and Resources The National Association of Environmental Law Societies

The U.S. Constitution has long been interpreted by the courts and understood by most Americans to support comprehensive environmental protections. However, arguments questioning the constitutional legitimacy of environmental law have continued to gain traction in the federal courts. In response to this trend, ELI, ABA SEER’s Constitutional Law Committee, and NAELS invite law students to submit papers exploring current issues of constitutional environmental law.

AWARD:

$2000 cash prize, an offer of publication in the Environmental Law Reporter, and a one-year individual membership to ELI.

TOPIC:

Any topic addressing recent developments or trends in U.S. environmental law that have a significant constitutional or “federalism” component. (See sample topics below.)

ELIGIBILITY:

Students currently enrolled in law school (in the U.S. or abroad) are eligible, including students who will graduate in the spring or summer of 2012. Any relevant article, case comment, note, or essay may be submitted, including writing submitted for academic credit. Jointly authored pieces are eligible only if all authors are students and consent to submit. Previously published pieces, or pieces that are already slated for publication, are ineligible.

DEADLINE:

Entries must be received no later than 5:00 PM ET on Friday, April 12, 2013. Email entries (and any questions) to Judy Amsalem at amsalem@eli.org. You will receive a confirmation by email.

SUBMISSION REQUIREMENTS:

• Cover page. This separate page must include the following information:
• Title
• Author’s name, year in law school, and expected graduation date (to facilitate impartial judging, the author’s name and law school must NOT appear anywhere in the essay, other than on this cover page)
• Law school name and address
• Author’s permanent and school mailing addresses, email address, and phone number (IMPORTANT: indicate effective dates for any contact information subject to change)
• Abstract (limited to 100 words) describing the piece
• Certification that the article has not been published and is not slated for future publication (while authors may submit their articles to other competitions, acceptance for publication elsewhere will disqualify an entry from further consideration)
• Statement as to where the author(s) learned about this competition

Topic:

The scope of permissible topics for the writing competition is broad—any aspect of tax law is acceptable. Students are encouraged to submit a paper addressing:

• A public policy issue
• A critique of a leading case or doctrine
• A comment on a statute or the need for stator modification, or
• A comment on a common law doctrine

Specifications:

• All papers are to be submitted electronically by email to aberkow@jmls.edu. Please reference “Writing Competition” in the subject line.
• Your paper should be typed double-spaced, set in Times New Roman font on 8.5” x 11” paper with one-inch margins
• Papers are to be formatted with endnotes; papers submitted with footnotes will not be accepted.
• Entries should be between 25-30 pages long, not including endnotes.
• Citations are to conform to A Uniform System of Citation (the Bluebook).

Submissions:

All entries must be received by 11:59 p.m., central time on Sunday, March 31, 2013. Papers submitted after this time and date will not be considered.

Eligibility:

The International Association of Defense Counsel 2013 Legal Writing Contest is open to students who, at the time of submission of their entries, are enrolled as J.D. candidates in accredited law schools.

Subject Matter:

Entries must be submitted in the English language on a subject of practical concern to lawyers engaged in the defense or management of the defense of civil litigation, such as relevant aspects of tort law, insurance law, civil procedure, evidence, damages, alternative dispute resolution procedures, and professional ethics.

Authorship and Publication

Entries must be certified by the entrant on the IADC entry form to be the original and sole work of the entrant. At the time of submission, the entry must not have been published or accepted for publication, and the author must be free to execute the assignment of copyright to IADC referred to in Rule 7.

Judging:

The contest will be judged by a committee of the IADC, whose decisions will be final. In addition to the monetary award winners, the judges may designate entries worthy of honorable mention.

Judging Standards

Articles will be judged on the following factors: (1) the choice of subject matter, as measured by its significance, international or national relevance, and timeliness; (2) the amount of work and effort, as measured by the entry’s comprehensiveness and analysis; (3) the quality of the legal analysis, as measured by its objectivity and balance; and (4) the writing quality, as measured by clarity of expression, brevity, and literary construction. Entrants also should consider the points made in the contest guidelines.

Subscription:

A year’s subscription to Defense Counsel Journal will be given to all contestants who meet the qualifications for entry in this contest.
Entries must be submitted via e-mail in English in Microsoft Word format to Melisa Maisel at mmaisel@iadclaw.org. Footnotes should appear on the page referenced in the text. Avoid excessive footnotes. Use The Bluebook: A Uniform System of Citation (19th edition) for style.

The Bert W. Levit Essay Contest is conducted by the American Bar Association Standing Committee on Lawyers’ Professional Liability and the San Francisco law firm of Long & Levit LLP. The 2013 contest is administered and judged by a subcommittee designated by the ABA Standing Committee on Lawyers’ Professional Liability. The 2013 Contest Essay Hypothetical involves questions about a law firm’s potential malpractice exposure when it relied upon a third-party vendor to provide document review services for a client, which ultimately resulted in the release of privileged documents.

• ONLINE entries MUST be submitted by 11:59 PM CST on February 23, 2013.
• MAILED entries MUST be postmarked by February 23, 2013.

TOPIC

Judges will consider papers on any topic relating to the law governing the workplace, such as employment law, labor law, employee benefits, or employment discrimination.

SUBMISSION

The deadline for submission is Tuesday, January 22, 2013. Entries received after the deadline will not be considered. Entries should be mailed to:

Louis Jackson Writing Competition
c/o Institute for Law and the Workplace
Chicago-Kent College of Law
Illinois Institute of Technology
565 West Adams Street
Chicago, IL 60661-3691

CONTACT

Questions may be directed to Professor Martin H. Malin by e-mail to mmalin@kentlaw.edu.

The use of technology in today’s law practice can and does present new challenges and risks for attorneys in small firms as well as for solo practitioners representing clients involved in litigation. Attorneys are well advised to be familiar with changes in the practice of law embracing email service, e-filing, e-discovery and even e-recording. Therefore, it is important for future Florida lawyers to be able to identify best practices to protect the client confidentiality with professionalism when working with e-documents. This contest is designed to encourage Florida law students to identify relevant issues, research applicable rules and laws, analyze the legal or ethical issue(s) and suggest ways to manage the identified or perceived malpractice risk(s).

Essay Requirements:

All entries must be prepared for this contest or for academic purposes and not previously published in print or on the Internet. All entries must include a digital photograph for use in the event the entry is selected as the contest winner. Each entrant is required to assign to FLMIC and the YLD of The Florida Bar all rights, title and interest in the essay and digital photograph submitted. It is the policy of FLMIC and the YLD of The Florida Bar, however, to release all assigned rights in all but the winning essay and notify the author of any permissions given to third parties for reprint or otherwise publish.
The essay should be a minimum of 5 and a maximum of 10 pages, including citations appearing in Blue Book format and as endnotes. Essays will be judged based on framing and analysis of the issue(s) discussed, research completed, solutions or practices suggestions, and writing style. The essay should be typewritten and double spaced on 8.5 x 11 inch paper. A cover sheet should be included that contains the entrant’s name, address, telephone number, title and law school status. No identification other than the title should appear on the essay itself. The cover sheet will be removed before the essay is read to assure objectivity in the judging process.

Eligibility:

The contest is open to all students enrolled in a Florida law school as of the deadline date or during the prior academic year. Essays must be received by FLMIC by the deadline date, which is April 1, 2013 5:00 PM.

Judging:

Essays will be judged by a committee of at least three individuals including but not limited to a representative of the YLD of The Florida Bar and FLMIC, who are unrelated to the entrants.

Awards:

The winner of the essay contest will receive 1) a $750 cash award; 2) complimentary registration to the 7^th Annual Solo & Small Firm Conference; 3) hotel accommodations for the Conference provided by The Henry Latimer Center for Professionalism; 4) recognition by the various sponsoring organizations at various events; and 5) submission of the essay by the Young Lawyers Division to The Florida Bar Journal for consideration for future publication in the June 2013 issue.
The student awarded an Honorable Mention prize will receive 1) a $350 cash award; 2) recognition by the various sponsoring organizations at various events; and 3) submission of the essay by the General Practice, Solo & Small Firm Section to their newsletter editor for consideration for future publication in the Section’s fall 2013 newsletter.

Entry:

The contest is open to all students enrolled in a Florida law school as of the deadline date or during the prior academic year. Essays must be submitted to FLMIC (nancys@flmic.com) by the deadline date, which is April 1^st 2013 by 5 p.m.

Requirements are as follows:

• Full and part-time J.D. and LL.M. students are eligible.
• Any original paper concerning federal taxation between 20-50 double spaced pages is welcome.
• Seminar papers and articles submitted (but not yet selected for publication) to law reviews, journals, or other competitions are eligible.

Winning authors receive $2000 (first place) or $1000 (second place) and a trip to the FBA’s Annual Tax Law Conference in Washington, D.C. The winning entries may be published in the Tax Section newsletter the Report or in The Federal Lawyer.

Papers will be evaluated based on the following criteria:

• Depth of research
• Originality of thought
• Quality, clarity, and efficiency of presentation
• Relevance to current tax policy or events

Submition:

Entries may be submitted by email to Sherwin Valerio or by mail to:

Federal Bar Association Section on Taxation
Attn: Donald C. Alexander Tax Law Writing Competition
1220 N. Fillmore Str. Suite 444
Arlington, VA 22201

The scope of permissible topics is broad. i.e. any aspect of domestic public or private labor or employment law. Students are encouraged to present a public policy issue, practical implications of a leading case or doctrine, comment on a statue or the need for a statutory modification, or comment on a common law doctrine.In addition to a monetary award, the winner will have his/her article distributed to all Fellows with a future issue of the College newsletter and posted on the College’s website. The first-place winning article will be published in the The ABA Journal of Labor & Employment Law. The Journalis a publication devoted to ideas and developments in labor and employment law, and published by the ABA and the Section of Labor and Employment Law. The author of the first-place winning article will be invited as a guest at the annual CLE program of the ABA Section of Labor and Employment Law and honored at the Annual Induction Dinner of the College of Labor and Employment Lawyers.For additional information, please visit the College of Labor and Employment Lawyers website: www.laborandemploymentcollege.org.

Any student currently enrolled in an accredited American law school may enroll in the contest. Each entry must be submitted through a faculty advisor. All entrants must fill out and submit an intent-to-enter form by January 31, 2013 found at the following link: http://publicjustice.net/news-events/awards/hogansmoger-essay-contest, and mail, fax or e-mail it to: Hogan/Smoger Access to Justice Essay Contest, Public Justice Foundation, Attention: Cassandra Goings, 1825 K St. NW, Suite 200, Washington, DC 20006. Fax: 202-232-7203. E-mail: cgoings@publicjustice.net.For the 2013 contest, writers should address the question, “Is Democracy for Sale?”

• Have Citizens United‘s holdings run amok?
• Legal challenges left to Super Pacs?
• Can funding disclosure be required?

IT-Lex is a not-for-profit charitable organization dedicated to educational, literary, and scientific advancement in the field of technology law. They provide all kinds of educational and entertaining content (more on that below), and help link up technology law scholars, educators, seasoned practitioners, young lawyers, law students, paralegals, technologists, and anyone else with an interest in this constantly-evolving area of law.All entries must be 10-15 journal pages (approximately 5,000-7,500 words including footnotes). Please format your entries with double-spaced body text and footnotes rather than endnotes, and provide your entry in Microsoft Word format. Citations must conform to the 19th edition of The Bluebook. We will begin accepting submissions for the inaugural writing competition on September 25, 2012 via our submission portal. Again, you’ll have to sign up as a Friend of IT-Lex (for free) before you can submit an essay. The application deadline is February 1, 2013.

American University Washington College of Law Center for Human Rights and Humanitarian Law and the American Society of International law’s Lieber Society seek submissions of papers for the Third Annual International Humanitarian Law Student Writing Competition.This competition aims to promote interest and enhance scholarship in international humanitarian law among students as well as deepen their understanding of this important area of International Law.The two winning authors will present their papers at an expert conference at American University Washington College of Law in Washington, DC., with travel and accommodation expenses covered. They will also receive a complimentary registration to the ASIL 2013 Annual Meeting in Washington, DC on April 3-6, 2013, and a one-year ASIL student membership.Eligibility and Requirements:

• Students must currently be enrolled in a law degree program at a U.S. or foreign law school
• Students may choose a topic within the scope of International Humanitarian Law
• Submissions must be unpublished academic papers written solely by the candidate in English.
• Papers must be submitted by e-mail to teachingihl@wcl.american.edu.
• The deadline for submissions is Monday, January 31, 2013, by 12 p.m. (EST).

For detailed competition rules, please visit www.wclcenterforhr.org.

Every year, the American College of Legal Medicine (ACLM) presents an award for the outstanding original paper on legal medicine. All students studying law, dentistry, podiatry, nursing, pharmacy, health science, healthcare administration or public health are encouraged to compete. The first place paper will be named the Hirsh Award Winner. In addition, the ACLM will pay the Hirsh Award Winner’s costs of travel & lodging to present his or her paper at the ACLM 2013 Annual Meeting in Las Vegas, NV. For information regarding the judging criteria and submission, please refer to the following link: HERE.

Papers will be accepted on any issue concerning American Indian Law. Papers will be judged on the basis of originality and timeliness of topic, knowledge and use of applicable legal principles, proper and articulate analysis of the issues, use of authorities and extent of research, logic and reasoning in analysis, ingenuity and ability to argue by analogy, clarity and organization, correctness of format and citation, grammar and writing style, and strength and logic of conclusions. Entries must be a minimum of 20 pages in length and a maximum of 50 pages in length excluding endnotes. All citations should conform to the Uniform System of Citation. The body of the email must contain the author’s name, social security number, school, expected year of graduation, current address, permanent address and email address. Inquiries may be replied to by email. No identifying marks (name, school, etc.) should appear on the paper itself. All entries must have only one author, be previously unpublished and not currently submitted for publication elsewhere.

Submissions:

Submissions may be emailed to the American Indian Law Review at mwaters@ou.edu by the competition deadline. Entries may be sent as Microsoft Word, WordPerfect, or PDF documents. If submitting a hard copy entry, mail it to:

AILR Writing Competition
American Indian Law Review
3000 Timberdell Road
Norman, OK 73019

Please email mwaters@ou.eduby the deadline to notify the AILR that you are sending a hard copy submission.