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Writing Competitions for Law Students: Business 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.  

Business Law

American Bar Association Business Law Section: Mendes Hershman Student Writing Contest

  • Sponsor: Business Law Section of the American Bar Association
  • Topic: "All essays should be business law related." 
  • Format: "Papers submitted are normally 20-30 pages long, but in any event should not exceed 100 pages of double-spaced typed text, including footnotes."
  • Eligibility requirements include: "Eligibility to participate in this contest or to win prizes is limited to an individual who at the time of entry is: at least 21 years of age; a legal resident of the United States; and a student enrolled in an ABA-accredited law school in good standing at the time of submission (can be pursuing either a JD or LLM degree)."  "Employees, officers, directors, contractors, agents and representatives of the ABA and their immediate families and household members are ineligible to enter the contest." 
  • "Essays must be:
    •  original in content;
    • in the English language;
    • written during 2022-2023 or the current academic year;
    • submitted in electronic format (.doc or .pdf);
    • 100 typed pages or less (typically essays are 20-30 pages long), including footnotes, with 12-point font and 1-inch margins; and
    • specifically written for this contest; a law school class, seminar, or independent study; or a law review or journal note, comment, or article.
    • Sponsored by a faculty member of the submitting law student’s law school.
  • "Essays submitted to or published by a student publication are acceptable. The submission entry form must indicate to which publication the work was submitted and if the work was published."
  • Prizes: "First Place: $1,000 cash prize and eligibility to have their essay’s abstract published in The Business Lawyer.  Second Place and Third Place winners: eligibility to have their essays considered for publication in Business Law Today."
  • Deadline: "The ABA will accept entries from April 15, 2024, through midnight (CST) May 15, 2024, and will not consider any entry received after the due date and time."

New York State Bar Association Business Law Section: Annual Student Writing Competition

  • Sponsor: Business Law Section of the New York State Bar Association 
  • Topic: First listed criterion for an article's submission is: "Relevance to the Journal's audience (New York business lawyers)." Additional listed criteria are: "Timeliness of the topic; Originality; Quality of research and writing; Clarity and conciseness."
  • Eligibility requirements stated at website above include: "[O]pen to all students who are candidates for the JD or LLM degree at an accredited law school during the year in which the article is submitted."
  • Additional requirements stated at website above include: "All submissions become the property of the NYSBA and the Business Law Journal. By submitting an article, the student is deemed to consent to its publication, whether or not a cash prize is awarded. To enter, the student should submit an original, unpublished manuscript in Word format to David L. Glass, editor in chief, NYSBA New York Business Law Journal (david.glass@macquarie.com). The student should include a brief biography, including law school attended, degree for which the student is a candidate, and expected year of graduation."
  • Prizes: 1st-3rd place cash prize awards, possible additional cash prize awards, possible publishing opportunity in NYSBA New York Business Law Journal, "which is sponsored by the Section in cooperation with Albany Law School and is published in the Spring and Fall."
  • Deadline: Submissions should be made by February 15 for the Spring issue and by August 15 for the Fall issue of the New York Business Law Journal.