ABA: Section of Business Law – Mendes Hershman Student Writing Contest

Contestant Criteria

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.
Contestant need not be a member of the ABA or the Business Law Section.
Limit 1 entry and prize per contestant.
Employees, officers, directors, contractors, agents and representatives of the ABA and their immediate families and household members are ineligible to enter the contest.
The ABA’s determination of eligibility, in its sole discretion, is final.

Submission Criteria and Application Process

The ABA will accept entries from November 1, 2017, through midnight (CST) February 1, 2018, and will not consider any entry received after the due date and time.
Entry form can be found on the Mendes Hershman Webpage.
Entry form and essay should be submitted to Khalilah.Bruton@americanbar.org.
Essays must be:
- original in content;
- in the English language;
- written during 2017-2018 or the current academic year;
- submitted in electronic format (Word or .pdf)
- 100 typed pages or less (typically essays are 20-30 pages long), including footnotes, with 12-pointfont 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.
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.
All entries are final. No revisions are accepted.

Please note: Entries that do not meet these requirements will be disqualified.

Judging and Winner Selections

The ABA will appoint a committee to judge all essays. The decision of the judges is final.
Essays will be judged on choice topic, quality of research, legal analysis, writing style, originality, and contribution to the literature available on the topic. All essays should be business law related.
The ABA reserves the right not to award any prize(s) if, in the ABA’s sole judgment (based upon the committee’s recommendation), the quality of submitted entries does not merit award(s) or publication.

Prizes
The ABA will award the following prizes:

First Place: $2,500 cash prize plus an all-expense paid trip to the 2018 Business Law Section Spring Meeting.
Second Place: $1,000 cash prize plus an all-expense paid trip to the 2018 Business Law Section Spring Meeting.
Third Place: $500 cash prize plus an all-expense paid trip to the 2018 Business Law Section Spring
Meeting.