2017 Student Essay Competition CABA is proud to announce the 2017 edition of its annual student essay competition.  This competition is an integral part of CABA’s mission to provide a voice to Canadians in the United States and Americans in Canada and to foster a greater understanding of rules with cross-border implications as well as an engagement in their development. Admissibility Any student registered in a Canadian or American law school for the Winter and/or Spring semesters of 2017 (whether in the J.D., LL.B., B.C.L. or equivalent first degree program, or in the LL.M. program).  However, students completing doctoral or postdoctoral studies are not admissible. In addition, based on this year’s essay theme, students registered in undergraduate or master’s degree programs which have a mandatory international law component are also admissible. Theme

HOWARD C. SCHWAB MEMORIAL
ESSAY CONTEST SECTION OF FAMILY LAW

Each year, the American Bar Association Section of Family Law conducts an essay contest to encourage law students to think about current issues in family law, and to encourage participation in the Section of Family Law. Students may write on any aspect of family law. The contest is open to second and third-year full-time J.D. students (and second through fourth-year part-time J.D. students) of all ABA-approved law schools, and to first year J.D. students where family law is taught as part of the first year curriculum.

Winning entries receive the following: Monetary prize, certificate of recognition, consideration of essay’s publication in Family Law Quarterly and the Section website, letter to law school dean regarding the achievement, and one year complimentary membership to the Section. To enter, one must submit an entry form by April 14, 2017. Essays are due April 28, 2017.

More information, including our downloadable entry form, can be found on our website. You may also contact ABA Section of Family Law Program Assistant, Danielle Pruger at danielle.pruger@americanbar.org or 312.988.5149 for additional information and assistance.

Purpose
The Crane Writing Competition is designed to encourage outstanding student scholarship at the intersection of law and medicine or law and the social sciences that promotes an understanding, furthers the development of legal rights and protections, and improves the lives of those with disabilities.

Eligibility
The Crane Writing Competition is open to currently enrolled law students (J.D., LL.M., and J.S.D.), medical students, and doctoral candidates in related fields who attend an accredited graduate program of study in the United States.

Topic
Submitted papers may be on any topic relating to disability law including, legal issues arising with respect to employment, government services and programs, public accommodations, education, higher education, housing, and health care.

Judging
Submissions will be judged anonymously by an independent panel of experts. Judging will be on the basis of the following criteria:

1. Thesis originality
2. Topic complexity
3. Research quality
4. Organization and analysis
5. Writing quality 

Prizes

1. The winner of the competition will receive a $1,500 cash prize and the Thomas Jefferson Law Review (TJLR) will consider the paper for publication under the TJLR’s editorial standards.
2. Two second place winners will each receive a $1,000 cash prize.

Preference for these additional winners will be given to submissions from disciplines not represented by the grand prize winner. By submitting a paper to this competition, the author grants Thomas Jefferson School of Law the right to edit, as necessary, and publish that paper in the TJLR.

Rules
The written submission shall be an original work of a single author not previously published or under consideration for publication. The work must be produced in conjunction with course work toward a degree or under the supervision of a faculty member at the student’s home institution. Only one submission may be submitted per author.

Format
Submissions should be appropriate for law review publication. Citations should conform to the citation style most frequently used by the student’s discipline. For example, law student manuscripts should employ the current edition of The Blue Book: A Uniform System of Citation. All submissions should be in Microsoft Word, double-spaced, Times New Roman 12-point font on 8 1/2 by 11 inch paper. Footnotes should be single-spaced. One inch margins are required. Pages should be numbered. A cover page must be provided that includes: author name; contact information; school; and the academic degree currently pursued by the student. Submissions must not exceed 35 pages in length, including citations, any figures or tables, and the cover page. The paper title should appear on the first full page of text. Identifying information, including student name, should not appear on any page other than the cover page.

Deadlines
All submissions must be submitted electronically to cranewritingcompetition@tjsl.edu. All entries must be received by midnight, Pacific Standard Time, January 15, 2017. Winning submissions will be announced by April 15, 2017.
Contact

Questions should be directed to Associate Dean and Professor Susan Bisom-Rapp: susanb@tjsl.edu

Law Student Reporters Program

The ABA Section of Intellectual Property Law subcommittee in the Law Student Action Group and would like to invite your law students to apply to our Law Student Reporters Program. Participants selected for the Program are given complimentary registration to the ABA Section of Intellectual Property Law’s 32nd Annual Intellectual Property Law Conference in Washington, DC on April 5-6, 2017. 

During the event, students attend the Section’s premier CLE programs and network with Intellectual Property Law attorneys from across the nation while reporting on the content of the CLE programming via social media. This is a great opportunity for your students to distinguish themselves in the area of Intellectual Property Law.

Applications for the program’s first round of decisions are due by Monday, November 7, 2016 at 5PM EST. The application can be accessed here: http://goo.gl/forms/X2RfgkWFPV. More opportunities are available for law students who join the Law Student Action Group at http://goo.gl/1KHSU. Any questions on the program can be sent to lawstudentreporters@gmail.com. 

Videos must be submitted via Dropbox to nawl@nawl.org. The contest release and entry form may be sent directly to nawl@nawl.org as an email attachment. For more information, please contact Kelsey Vuillemot, NAWL's Membership & Publications Coordinator, at vuillemotk@nawl.org. 

DEADLINE FOR SUBMISSIONS IS DECEMBER 31, 2016

Ohio State Bar Association Environmental Law Award:Call for Papers Submission Guidelines

Topic: Any topic that advances the application and practice of environmental, energy or resources law in the State of Ohio.

Eligibility: You are eligible to enter the OSBA Environmental Law Award: Call for Papers if you are currently enrolled in law school. The submission must be the student’s original, unpublished and uncopyrighted work. The paper may be prepared to satisfy a course requirement or for other academic credit. However, the paper must be the work of the submitting student without substantial editorial input from others. Only one paper may be submitted per entrant. Joint submissions are not permitted.

Prize: The winner of this contest will receive a prize of $1000 donated by McMahon DeGulis LLP. The second place winner will receive a prize of $250.

Submissions: Submissions may be of any length up to a maximum of 50 pages, in a double spaced, 8.5x11-inch page format with 12 point font (10 point for footnotes). All entries must be submitted electronically to envlaw@mdllp.net. You will receive a confirmation by email. The subject line should be “Response to Call for Papers” and the paper and cover page should be separate attachments.

Each submission should include a SEPARATE COVER PAGE with the entrant’s name, law school, year of study, mailing and email address, and phone number. The contestant’s name and other identifying markings, such as school name, may not appear on any copy of the submitted essay. The cover page should also include an abstract of not more than 250 words and certification that the article has not been published or is not slated to be published elsewhere. This certification grants McMahon DeGulis LLP and the OSBA the non-exclusive license to publication.

Submissions must be received by 5 pm EST on January 31, 2017.

A random number will be assigned to each entry and record of this number on all copies of each essay submitted. Neither the contestant’s identity nor his/her academic institution will be known to the selection committee.

Selection: Submitted articles will be judged on the following criteria: relevance to the practice of law in Ohio, timeliness and importance of selected topic; organization; quality of legal analysis; quality of legal research; and quality of the overall writing. In the event of a tie, the first tiebreaker will be the score for relevance to the practice of law in Ohio. The winning paper is expected to be of law review quality or better.

For additional information, please contact Louis L. McMahon, Esq. of McMahon DeGulis LLP at 216-367-1407 or lmcmahon@mdllp.net.

The Maurice A. Deane School of Law at Hofstra University
and theAssociation of Family and Conciliation Courtspresent the eighth annual

Family Law Writing Competition

Hofstra Law and the Association of Family and Conciliation Courts (AFCC) are sponsoring the seventh annual Family Law Writing Competition. The competition is run in cooperation with the editorial staff of the Family Court Review, which is the academic and research journal of  AFCC. The Family Court Review is an interdisciplinary and international journal published quarterly by Wiley and in cooperation with the Center for Children, Families, and the Law at Hofstra Law. The Family Court Review contributes to and facilitates discourse among the judicial, legal, mediation, mental health and social services communities.

Topics for Submission

The subject of entries may be within any area of family law, although topics that focus on international or interdisciplinary subjects of family law are especially encouraged. Articles should concentrate on a current legal issue and must have a strong foundation in legal research. Use of interdisciplinary sources may also be appropriate for many topics.

Entries will be judged on the quality of legal analysis, originality, depth or research, timeliness, creativity and format. The Family Court Review’s editors and a subcommittee of editorial board members will evaluate all articles.

Authorship

Submissions must be the work of one person. No joint authorships will be accepted, except articles written jointly by a law student and mental health, social science or other relevant graduate student. Submissions must be originally argued and researched legal papers. Hofstra Law students are ineligible to participate. Law students can be from any country. Advice and input from professors, judges and professionals in the field is allowed, but the author must research and write the entire article. Entries cannot be more than 25 double-spaced pages in length, including footnotes. Articles must be in Times New Roman, 12-point font, with 1-inch margins. Authors from the United States must comply with The Bluebook: A Uniform System of Citation, 20^th Edition. Authors from outside the United States must conform to the relevant legal-citation format commonly used in that country and must indicate the citation format used. The submitted article cannot be published elsewhere.

DUE DATE

Submissions must be received by February 1, 2017. The winners will be notified no later than April 15, 2017.

CONTACT INFORMATION

If you have questions, please contact the Managing Editor of the Family Court Review at fcr@hofstra.edu.

AWARDS

First Prize

·   $500 cash prize courtesy of the Center for Children, Families and the Law at Hofstra Law.

·   Certificate of recognition as first-place winner.

·   Consideration for publication of the article in the Family Court Review

·   Letter to the dean of the student’s law school.

·   One-year complimentary AFCC student membership, including a one-year subscription to the Family Court Review

OR

·   Complimentary conference registration to AFCC’s 54th Annual Conference, held May 31-June 3, 2017, in Boston. (Does not include hotel, transportation and food).

Honorable Mention

(Up to two)

·   $250 cash prize courtesy of the Center for Children, Families and the Law at Hofstra Law.

·   Certificate of recognition as the honorable-mention winner.

·   Consideration for publication of the article in the Family Court Review

·   Letter to the dean of the student’s law school.

SUBMISSION PROCESS

All submissions must be emailed as a Microsoft Word or PDF document to the Family Court Review at fcr@hofstra.edu. Hard copies are not permissible.