Office of Professional Development

National Association of Women Lawyers 2016 Selma Moidel Smith Law Student Writing Competition
 

The mission of the National Association of Women Lawyers is to provide leadership, a collective voice, and essential resources to advance women in the legal profession and advocate for the equality of women under the law. Since 1899, NAWL has been empowering women in the legal profession, cultivating a diverse membership dedicated to equality, mutual support, and collective success. 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.

Essays will be accepted from students enrolled at any law school during the 2015-16 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, Times New Roman font. All margins must be 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 that are not in the required format will 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, 2016. Entries received after the deadline will be considered only at the discretion of NAWL. Entries must provide a cover letter providing the title of the 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) 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 the Women Lawyers Journal. The most recent winning paper was "The Practice of Name Suppression: How the News Media Promotes the Stigmatization of Rape Victims" written by Emily Suran, University of Michigan Law School. Please view paper by clicking here.