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Writing Competitions for Law Students: Additional: Awards for Excellence in Legal Writing

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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.  

Awards for Excellence in Legal Writing

Judge John R. Brown Scholarship Foundation Annual Brown Award

  • Sponsor: Judge John R. Brown Scholarship Foundation
  • Award Description: "The Award honors excellence in legal writing in American law schools."
  • Eligibility in 2024 was: "Any law student currently enrolled in an accredited law school in the United States seeking a J.D. or LL.B degree is eligible to submit a paper for the Award."
  • Format & Requirements in 2024 were: "In order to be considered, two copies of a current legal writing must be submitted to the Foundation c/o Kenneth G. Engerrand, Brown Sims, P.C., 1990 Post Oak Blvd., Suite 1800, Houston, Texas 77056.  The article must be accompanied by a letter of recommendation from a law school faculty member or legal professional other than the author of the paper.  Only one paper may be submitted on behalf of any student, and only one paper may be sponsored by any faculty member or legal professional."  "There is no page limitation or restriction on the topic except that the writing must be on a legal subject. Papers that have been submitted to a law review for publication are eligible, but the submission must be of the paper in its form before it was edited by anyone other than the author."

  • Awards: "The amounts awarded for 2024 will be as follows:

    • $15,000 First Place,

    • $7,500 Second Place,

    • $5,000 Third Place,

    • $2,500 Finalist,

    • $2,500 Finalist, and

    • $5,000 to the Scholarship Fund selected by the Dean of the law school in which the First-Place candidate is enrolled."

  • Deadline in 2024 stated: Submissions needed to be "postmarked no later than May 31, 2024."

Scribes Law Review Award [annual award for the best student-written article in a law review or journal] - NEW: Brooklyn Law School has an institutional membership to Scribes.  Institutional membership entitles BLS "to annually nominate students for induction into the National Order of Scribes.  It is an honorary organization that recognizes graduating law students who excel in legal writing.  Member schools may nominate up to 5 students to be inducted each year."

  • Sponsor: Scribes — The American Society of Legal Writers
  • Scribes Law Review Award Description: "[A]n annual award for the best student-written article in a law review or journal."
  • Criteria for Judging Each Article submitted for the 2024 Scribes Law Review Award: "The professors and the committee members judge each article on these four criteria:
    • Quality of writing: The writing should be clean, direct, and engaging. /50
    • Topic: The topic should be timely and interesting. /20
    • Research: The research should be thorough, showing a passion for the topic, not just superficial research. /20
    • Footnotes: The article should have few to no talking footnotes. /10
  • Deadlines: Scribes accepted nominations for the 2024 Scribes Law Review Award through February 1, 2024.  Scribes member schools also engaged in their processes to select nominees for the 2024 National Order of Scribes.