2013 National Law Review Law Student Writing Competition

The National Law Review is pleased to announce their 2013 Law Student Writing Competition

The National Law Review (NLR) consolidates practice-oriented legal analysis from a variety of sources for easy access by lawyers, paralegals, law students, business executives, insurance professionals, accountants, compliance officers, human resource managers, and other professionals who wish to better understand specific legal issues relevant to their work.

The NLR Law Student Writing Competition offers law students the opportunity to submit articles for publication consideration on the NLR Web site.  No entry fee is required. Applicants can submit an unlimited number of entries each month.

• Winning submissions will be published according to specified dates.
• Entries will be judged and the top two to four articles chosen will be featured on the NLR homepage for a month.  Up to 5 runner-up entries will also be posted in the NLR searchable database each month.
• Each winning article will be displayed accompanied by the student’s photo, biography, contact information, law school logo, and any copyright disclosure.
• All winning articles will remain in the NLR database for two years (subject to earlier removal upon request of the law school).

In addition, the NLR sends links to targeted articles to specific professional groups via e-mail. The NLR also posts links to selected articles on the “Legal Issues” or “Research” sections of various professional organizations’ Web sites. (NLR, at its sole discretion, maydistribute any winning entry in such a manner, but does not make any such guarantees nor does NLR represent that this is part of the prize package.)

Congratulations to our 2013, 2012 and 2011 Law Student Writing Contest Winners

Spring 2013:

• Jacob Bethel Woolston from Southern Methodist University, SMU Dedman School of Law: Closing Time for Anheuser-Busch, the NLRB Adopts a Balancing Test When Unions Request Witness Statements
• Sixuan Lu from Southern Methodist University, SMU Dedman School of Law: Far From Perfection: Individual Alternative Minimum Tax Is Still Alive
• Courtney Anne Chicvak from St. John’s University School of Law: From Silver Bullets to Bazookas: Workers’ Innovative Challenge to Wal-Mart’s Employment Practices
• Olivia J. Quinto from Rutgers School of Law: The Siren Song of Securities: The Perils of Expert Networks & The Risks of Insider Trading
• Edward Silverman from Pepperdine University School of Law: The Suspicious Existence of the “Repeat Player Effect” in Mandatory Arbitration of Employment Disputes

Winter 2013:

• Rebecca Heatherly Block from Southern University Law Center: The 1/3: Childhood Obesity in the Twenty First Century

• Chase Anders Manuel from Southern University Law Center: Human Augmentation: A Bioethical Implication Analysis of Cybernetics, Nanotechnology, and Upgrades to the Human Body

Fall 2012: 

• Laura Homan from Chicago-Kent College of Law:Not All “Entries” Are Equal – The Law of “Entry” and “Admission” for Purposes of the Immigration and Nationality Act
• Laura Ploeg from Villanova University School of Law: Chamber of Commerce v. Whiting: A Law Student’s Freewheeling Inquiry
• Lloydann A. Wade from Barry University Dwayne O. Andreas School of Law: 
  Illegal Immigration and Education
• Rouzhna Nayeri from Southern Methodisit University Dedman School of Law:  Fourteenth Amendment Equal Protection—Second Circuit Applies The Strict Scrutiny Test And Holds That New York Cannot Prohibit Nonimmigrants From Obtaining Pharmacist Licenses
• Adam Dominic Kielich from Texas Wesleyan University School of Law: What’s Not to “Like” About Workplace Harassment?

Spring 2012:

• More Muni’s, More Problems: Increased Regulation of the Municipal Bond Market And Its Potential Effects on Municipal Bankruptcies and the US Economy by Joseph C. Barsalona, II from The Ohio State University Moritz College of Law.
• Ponzi Schemes: Keeping Your “Return” on “Investment” by Penelope Rose Hansen of Atlanta’s John Marshall School of Law.
• Legal Considerations of Cremation Jewelry  by Samantha Taber of Texas Tech University School of Law.

Winter 2012:

• Increasing Offshore Wind Projects:  A Focus on Regulatory Authority by Kiboni Yarling from the Florida Coastal Law School
• The Florida Environmental Approach:  Water Management by William Kirilloff from the Florida Coastal Law School
• Will A Moratorium on Confined Animal Feedling Operations Ever Get Through the Indiana General Assembly by Emily Abraham from the Northeastern University School of Law
• A Void for Vagueness:  Florida Confinement Law/How Animal Welfare Litigators Can Seize Upon a Semantic Loophole by Gautam Jagannath from the Northeastern University School of Law

Fall 2011:

• Trademark Counterfeiting and Individual Purchaser Liability by Lisa Lyne Cunningham from University of Baltimore School of Law
• Ford Motor Credit Company v. Chesterfield County: Reading Constitutional Fairness And Supply Side Economics Into The Virginia Tax Code by Adam Blander  from Brooklyn Law School
• Cost Shifting in e-Discovery: A Comparative Analysis Between America and Europe by Umar Bakhsh from Chicago-Kent College of Law
• Football and Antitrust Law: American Needle v. NFL and It’s Meaning for Combinations in Restraint of Trade and the Rule of Reason in the 21st Century by Michael Sabino from Brooklyn Law School

Why Students Should Submit Articles:

• Students have the opportunity to publicly display their legal knowledge and skills.
• The student’s photo, biography, and contact information will be posted with each article, allowing for professional recognition and exposure.
• Winning articles are published alongside those written by respected attorneys from Am Law 200 and other prominent firms as well as from other respected professional associations.
• Now more than ever, business development skills are expected from law firm associates earlier in their careers. NLR wants to give law students valuable experience generating consumer-friendly legal content of the sort which is included for publication in law firm client newsletters, law firm blogs, bar association journals and trade association publications.
• Student postings will remain in the NLR online database for up to two years, easily accessed by potential employers.
• For an example of  a contest winning student written article from Northwestern University, please click here or please review the winning submissions from Spring 2011.

Content Guidelines and Deadlines

Content Guidelines must be followed by all entrants to qualify. It is recommended that articles address the following monthly topic areas:

October 2013 Suggested Topic:

1. Immigration Law Reform

• Submission Deadline:  Monday, October 14, 2013

Articles covering current issues related to other areas of the law may also be submitted. Entries must be submitted via email to lawschools@natlawreview.com by 5:00 pm Central Standard Time on the dates indicated above.

Articles will be judged by NLR staff members on the basis of readability, clarity, organization, and timeliness. Tone should be authoritative, but not overly formal. Ideally, articles should be straightforward and practical, containing useful information of interest to legal and business professionals. Judges reserve the right not to award any prizes if it is determined that no entries merit selection for publication by NLR. All judges’ decisions are final. All submissions are subject to the NLR’s Terms of Use.

Students are not required to transfer copyright ownership of their winning articles to the NLR. However, all articles submitted must be clearly identified with any applicable copyright or other proprietary notices. The NLR will accept articles previously published by another publication, provided the author has the authority to grant the right to publish it on the NLR site. Do not submit any material that infringes upon the intellectual property or privacy rights of any third party, including a third party’s unlicensed copyrighted work.

Manuscript Requirements

• Format – HTML (preferred) or Microsoft^® Word
• Length – Articles should be no more than 5,500 words, including endnotes.
• Endnotes and citations – Any citations should be in endnote form and listed at the end of the article. Unreported cases should include docket number and court. Authors are responsible for the accuracy and proper format of related cites. In general, follow the Bluebook. Limit the number of endnotes to only those most essential. Authors are responsible for accuracy of all quoted material.
• Author Biography/Law School Information – Please submit the following:
  1. Full name of author (First Middle Last)
  2. Contact information for author, including e-mail address and phone number
  3. Author photo (recommended but optional) in JPEG format with a maximum file size of 1 MB and in RGB color format. Image size must be at least 150 x 200 pixels.
  4. A brief professional biography of the author, running approximately 100 words or 1,200 characters including spaces.
  5. The law school’s logo in JPEG format with a maximum file size of 1 MB and in RGB color format. Image size must be at least 300 pixels high or 300 pixels wide.
  6. The law school mailing address, main phone number, contact e-mail address, school Web site address, and a brief description of the law school, running no more than 125 words or 2,100 characters including spaces.

To enter, an applicant and any co-authors must be enrolled in an accredited law school within the fifty United States. Employees of The National Law Review are not eligible. Entries must include ALL information listed above to be considered and must be submitted to the National Law Review at lawschools@natlawreview.com. 

Any entry which does not meet the requirements and deadlines outlined herein will be disqualified from the competition. Winners will be notified via e-mail and/or telephone call at least one day prior to publication. Winners will be publicly announced on the NLR home page and via other media.  All prizes are contingent on recipient signing an Affidavit of Eligibility, Publicity Release and Liability Waiver. The National Law Review 2011 Law Student Writing Competition is sponsored by The National Law Forum, LLC, d/b/a The National Law Review, 4700 Gilbert, Suite 47 (#230), Western Springs, IL 60558, 708-357-3317. This contest is void where prohibited by law. All entries must be submitted in accordance with The National Law Review Contributor Guidelines per the terms of the contest rules. A list of winners may be obtained by writing to the address listed above. There is no fee to enter this contest.