Labor and Employment Lawyers Annual Law Student Writing Competition

American Bar Association Section of Labor and Employment Law and
The College of Labor and Employment Lawyers
Annual Law Student Writing Competition for 2013-2014

The ABA Section of Labor and Employment Law and The College of Labor and Employment Lawyers are pleased to announce their 2013-2014 writing competition. This competition is open to articles written while the author is a student at an accredited law school in the United States. Authors may not have graduated from law school prior to December 1, 2013. Graduate students in law school (LL.M. candidates) are not eligible. Entries may address any aspect of public or private sector labor and/or employment law relevant to the American labor and employment bar. Students are encouraged to discuss a public policy issue, practical implications of a leading case or doctrine, a statute or the need for statutory modification, or a common law doctrine. Articles may address U.S. law, international law of relevance to U.S. labor and employment attorneys, or how a legal topic is treated in states across the country, but papers limited to the law of a single state will not be considered. Papers must be analytical in nature, not merely a summary of the law. Students must present and discuss competing points of view with respect to the issue presented and must distinguish their conclusions from opposing positions with sound logic and reference to multiple sources. Entries will be evaluated on topic selection, analysis, quality of research, grammar, spelling, usage and syntax, clarity, structure, overall appearance, and relevance to the practicing labor and employment law bar.

The first-place winning article will be published in the ABA Journal of Labor & Employment Law, and its author will be 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. The College and the Section reserve the right not to select any article for publication or award any prizes if, in their judgment, the submissions do not meet their standards for publication.

To be considered, articles must be submitted by midnight (EDST) on May 15, 2014, to swan@laborandemploymentcollege.org using the subject line "Writing Competition." The manuscript should be submitted as attachments in both Microsoft Word and PDF documents. The text should be Times New Roman font, 12 point pitch, double-spaced and the footnotes single-spaced with double-spacing between footnotes on 8 ½ x 11 inch paper with one-inch margins on all sides. The manuscript, exclusive of the cover page, may not exceed twenty pages. All citations should conform to The Bluebook: A Uniform System of Citation (19th Edition). Do not submit endnotes, a table of contents or table of cases. A separate cover page must also be submitted that includes the paper's title, author's name, law school, graduation date, e-mail, street address and telephone number. Although personal information should not appear on the manuscript itself, the title should be clearly visible on at least the first page. Manuscripts must be the original work of a single author, may not have been written for paid employment, and may not have been submitted for publication elsewhere.

RULES

1.    Entries may address any aspect of public or private sector labor and/or employment law relevant to the American labor and employment bar. Students are encouraged to discuss a public policy issue, practical implications of a leading case or doctrine, a statute or the need for statutory modification, or a common law doctrine. Articles may address U.S. law, international law of relevance to U.S. labor and employment attorneys, or how a legal topic is treated in states across the country, but papers limited to the law of a single state will not be considered. Papers must be analytical in nature, not merely a summary of the law. Students must present and discuss competing points of view with respect to the issue presented and must distinguish their conclusions from opposing positions with sound logic and reference to multiple sources.

2.    The competition is open to articles written while the author is a student at an accredited law school in the United States. Authors may not have graduated from law school prior to December 1, 2013. Graduate students in law school (LL.M. candidates) are not eligible.

3.    Entries will be evaluated on topic selection, analysis, quality of research, grammar, spelling, usage and syntax, clarity, structure, and overall appearance.

4.    Articles must be submitted to swan@laborandemploymentcollege.org, using the subject line "Writing Competition," by midnight (EDST) on May 15, 2014. A separate cover page must also be submitted that includes the paper's title, author's name, law school, graduation date, e-mail, street address and telephone number. Although personal information should not appear on the manuscript itself, the title should be clearly visible on at least the first page.

5.    The article should be 12-point Times New Roman font, double-spaced, with the footnotes single-spaced and double-spacing between footnotes on 8 ½ x 11 inch paper with one-inch margins on all sides. The manuscript, exclusive of the cover page, may not exceed twenty pages. Do not submit endnotes, a table of contents or table of cases. Articles must be submitted as two attachments in both Microsoft Word and PDF documents.

6.    All citations should conform to The Bluebook: A Uniform System of Citation (19th Edition).

7.    Manuscripts must be the original work of a single author, may not have been written for paid employment, and may not have been submitted for publication elsewhere.

8.    No person may submit more than one entry.

9.    The judges reserve the right not to award any prizes and to reject any or all submissions.

PUBLICATION AND PRIZES

1.    The College of Labor and Employment Lawyers may award the following prizes:

·         First Place: $1500

·         Second Place: $1000

·         Third Place: $500

2.    The first-place winning article will be published in the ABA Journal of Labor & Employment Law.

3.    The names of the authors of the second- and third-place winning articles will be mentioned in the ABA Journal of Labor & Employment Law.

4.    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.

5.    The College of Labor and Employment Lawyers may, at its discretion, include a copy of any or all of the prize-winning manuscripts in an issue of its newsletter and/or on its web site.