The National Association of Women Lawyers’ Annual Selma Moidel Smith Law Student Writing Competition
The National Association of Women Lawyers (“NAWL”) has established the annual Selma Moidel Smith Law Student Writing Competition to encourage and reward original law student writing on issues concerning women and the law. The rules for the competition are as follows.
TOPIC
Entrants should submit a paper on an issue concerning women’s rights or the status of women in the law.
ELIGIBILITY
Essays will be accepted from students enrolled at any law school during the 2009/2010 school year. The essays must be the law student author’s own work and must not have been submitted for publication elsewhere. Notwithstanding the foregoing, students may incorporate professorial feedback as part of a course requirement or supervised writing project.
FORMAT
Essays must be typed on 8 1/2 x 11 inch paper, double-spaced in 12-point font, Times New Roman font type. All margins must be at least one inch. Entries must not exceed fifteen (15) pages of text, excluding notes, with footnotes placed as endnotes. Citation style should conform to the 18th edition of The Bluebook – A Uniform System of Citation. Essays longer than 15 pages of text, excluding notes, or which are not in the required format will not be read.
JUDGING
NAWL Women Lawyers Journal designees will judge the competition. Essays will be judged based upon content, exhaustiveness of research, originality, writing style and timeliness.
QUESTIONS
Questions regarding this competition should be addressed to the chair of the Writing Competition, Professor Jennifer Martin at jmart@uoregon.edu.
SUBMISSION AND DEADLINE
Entries must be received by April 30, 2010. Entries received after the deadline will be considered only at the discretion of NAWL. Entries must be submitted in two formats: (1) email an electronic version (in Microsoft Word or PDF format) to jsart@uoregon.edu; and (2) mail, with a postmark dated by April 30, 2010, four paper copies of the essay to:
Selma Moidel Smith Law Student Writing Competition
National Association of Women Lawyers
American Bar Center, MS 15.2
321 North Clark Street
Chicago, IL 60654
AWARD
The author of the first-place essay will receive a cash prize of $500. The winning essay will be published in the NAWL Women Lawyers Journal in Summer 2010.