Daily Archives: April 23, 2015

THE AMERICAN COLLEGE OF EMPLOYEE BENEFITS COUNSEL – WRITING COMPETITION [DEADLINE: JUNE 2, 2015]

Since 2005, the College has sponsored a writing competition for law students, to encourage them to learn about employee benefits. The College’s writing contest award winners are selected each year by the ACEBC Writing Contest Committee from among eligible submissions. Submissions have been received from a wide variety of law schools from across the nation.

Each year the eligible submissions are circulated among a group of initial reviewers consisting of ACEBC Writing Committee members and other ACEBC Fellows who volunteer to perform that task. Each initial reviewer provides his or her evaluation on the papers on score sheets based upon the factors identified in the contest rules. Those factors are as follows: (i) Analysis (i.e., depth and creativity of legal analysis); (ii) Research (i.e., thoroughness of legal research); (iii) Writing (i.e., organization/writing style); (iv) Difficulty (i.e., difficulty of subject matter); (v) Policy (i.e., consideration of policy implications); (vi) Other factors; and (vii) Overall impression.

Three to five finalists are selected based on the committee’s evaluation of the initial reviewer’s comments. All of the papers selected as finalists are reviewed by the entire committee. Each committee member submits a score sheet ranking the finalist’s submission according to the same factors described above. The Chair compiles a composite score sheet showing the rankings of all committee members. This composite score sheet forms the basis for the committee’s final deliberations.

Before notifying the winners, a committee member is selected to perform a rigorous check of the citations contained in the winning papers. Once the papers clear this cite check, the committee reports its recommendations to the Board of Governors for final approval of the awards. No one involved in the process other than the committee’s chair is informed of the identity of the student author of any paper or of the author’s law school until the committee completes its deliberations.

The writing competition has been successful in many ways but one measure is that several of the competitors have gone on to practice employee benefit law after their graduation from law school.

Topic: Papers may be on any topic in the employee benefits field

Eligibility: Any J.D. and LL.M. students enrolled at any time between August 14, 2014 and August 15, 2015

Submission guidelines: Available @ acebc.com/public-docs/ACEBC-Writing-Competition-Announcement-2015.pdf

Awards: Two monetary prizes are offered, one funded by Susan Serota, in honor of her father, Sidney M. Perlstadt, an Emeritus Fellow, and the other funded by Fiduciary Counselors Inc. in honor of Clarin Schwartz, its first General Counsel who died in the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001. Winners also receive an employee benefits treatise published by BNA Books. If deemed suitable by the editors, one or more of the winning papers may be published by the BNA Pension and Benefits Reporter or in the BNA Tax Management Compensation Planning Journal.

Complete details: Available @ acebc.com/employee-benefits-writing-competition

Contact: Questions about the Writing Competition should be directed to Brian Dougherty, Chair of the ACEBC Writing Competition Committee @ bdougherty@morganlewis.com

UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA LAW REVIEW – PUBLIC INTEREST ESSAY COMPETITION [DEADLINE: JUNE 22, 2015 AT 5 P.M. EDT]

The University of Pennsylvania Law Review is pleased to announce its first annual Public Interest Essay Competition. The Competition is a national writing competition for student-authored articles on topics focused on social justice and the public interest.

The University of Pennsylvania Law Review has both a professional and educational mission: it serves the bench, the bar, and the academy by providing a forum for the publication of original, high quality legal research while also providing educational experiences for its Editors. Like many journals, the Law Review provides an opportunity for its Editors to submit an original work of scholarship suitable for professional publication. Through this Competition, the Law Review seeks to expand this opportunity and further its dual mission by publishing serious legal scholarship focused on social justice and public interest issues and by supporting law students at the beginning of their legal careers.

Topic: Submissions must focus on a specific legal issue within the public interest. This encompasses any issues relating to social justice or advancing the general welfare and good of the public. Topic selection will be one of the criteria judged.

Awards: One winning essay will receive a monetary prize of $3,000 and will be published in print in Volume 164 of the University of Pennsylvania Law Review

Eligibility: The competition is open to all current law students (classes of 2015, 2016, and 2017) from any ABA accredited American law school. Submissions are limited to one per person and must be an original, unpublished academic essay.

Submission guidelines:

• Essays must be submitted in PDF format and include footnote citations
• Submissions must be no longer than 9,000 words, including all footnotes, and must be named “PIEC.pdf”
• All submissions will be considered anonymously – students must ensure that their essays do not contain any identifying information (*any essays that include identifying information, such as name, class year, or institutional affiliation, will be disqualified)
• All submissions must conform to The Bluebook: A Uniform System of Citation (19th ed. 2010)

Send to: upenn.co1.qualtrics.com/SE/?SID=SV_6y4EW8S0WX3NnJX

Complete details: Available @ pennlawreview.com/PublicInterestEssayCompetition/

Contact: Please direct any questions regarding the competition to lawrev@law.upenn.edu