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Writing Competitions for Law Students: Securities Arbitration & Securities Law

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Sponsors/facilitators of student writing competitions provide more detailed instructions and rules at their websites.  Students need to review the information and rules available at these websites.  

Securities Arbitration & Securities Law

James E. Beckley Securities Arbitration and Law Writing Competition (annual) + contest description that was posted at Business Law Prof Blog on Sept. 18, 2024

  • Sponsor:  Public Investors Advocate Bar Association (PIABA)
  • Topic: "The Public Investors Advocate Bar Association (PIABA) sponsors this contest for papers touching on securities law and securities arbitration."  "Strong preference will be given to articles that advocate pro-investor positions, provide updates on or surveys of securities or ADR law, and/or are consistent with PIABA’s mission of promoting the education and interests of the public investor in securities and commodities arbitration, protecting public investors from abuses in the arbitration process, and making securities and commodities arbitration fair through legislative reforms to arbitration forum providers." 
  • Format requirements for the 2025 Competition included: "The text of a submission must be double-spaced, with twelve-point font and one-inch margins.  Any Question(s) Presented section, the Statement of the Facts / Statement of the Law section, the Argument section, and/or the Conclusion together are a minimum of 15 pages and a maximum of 30 pages.  If the submission covers both a topic among those listed above and a topic not listed above, only the topic listed above will be evaluated. Submissions will not be penalized for arguing a position that would limit investor rights rather than expand them."
  • Eligibility requirements in the 2025 Competition included: "The competition is open to all students attending a law school in the United States." "Full-time students who are not law students but who write law-related papers as part of a course at an American law school may also enter."  "PIABA employees and externs (except for students working less than 20 hours per week) are not eligible to enter the competition."
  • Prizes for the 2025 Competition were: PIABA "will pay over $3,000 in awards to law students with prizes at $1,500, $1,000, and $750 for the top three entrants. The PIABA Bar Journal will publish the first place paper and, in years past, has also made offers to publish other papers from the contest."
  • Deadline for submission was: March 28, 2025.