Legal Writing Contests

Associate Law Librarian Debora Person has compiled a list of various web sites that collect links to legal writing competitions for students.  Many of these competitions offer cash awards to winning entries, and some include travel to annual meetings and an opportunity to present or publish your work. Cash prizes vary from $100 up to $10,000. Entering a writing competition does not necessarily require producing a new work. In many cases, papers students have written for classes meet the requirements to enter these contests, or the papers can be reworked to qualify.

For example, 3L Diana Wempen entered a paper she wrote for her Domestic Violence class. Wempen's paper Four-Footed and Largely Forgotten: Exploring the Connections Between Animal Abuse and Domestic Violence won 3rd place in a national writing competition sponsored by the American Bar Association Commission on Domestic Violence. See full story.

Person cautions students to "pay attention to the deadlines." While the deadline for entry may have passed, some of the competitions are annual.  If you find a competition that you would like to enter, it may be worth a new internet search to find requirements for the current year.

Below is a list of the websites compiled by Debora Person for UW law students:

American Bar Association,

         http://www.abanet.org/lsd/competitions/writing-contests/home.html

Saint Louis University School of Law,

         http://law.slu.edu/curriculum/lrw/competitions.asp

University of Richmond School of Law,

         http://law.richmond.edu/essaycontests/list.php

University of Michigan Law School,   

         http://www.law.umich.edu/CurrentStudents/studentservices/Pages/competit.aspx

Western New England College School of Law,

        http://www1.law.wnec.edu/current/index.cfm?selection=doc.5512