The HNBA LGBT Division Announces Launch of its Inaugural LGBT Division Public Interest Scholarship Program

This scholarship will provide up to $5,000 in financial assistance to law students or recent law school graduates who will be performing public interest work (advocacy, policy, and/or direct legal services) with a direct impact on Latinx LGBTQ individuals. To be eligible, applicants must: (i) be either a first, second or third year law student in good standing in an ABA accredited law school, or a recent law graduate (having received the degree within 12 months of the application date); (ii) have secured an internship or placement for Summer 2018 (which can extend beyond the Summer) or the fall of 2018 (for a recent law graduate) with a public interest organization engaged in legal, advocacy, or policy work with a direct impact on Latinx LGBTQ individuals.

This scholarship opportunity, and other sources of summer funding for students, can be found in the PSJD Resource Center.

The application deadline is May 15 by 5:00pm EST.

Apply now here.

 

PUBLIC COUNSEL 2018 SUMMER CLERK OPENINGS STILL AVAILABLE: HOMELESSNESS PREVENTION AND VETERANS ADVANCEMENT

HOMELESSNESS PREVENTION LAW PROJECT – Public Counsel CARES Project

If you are seeking an opportunity to develop your interviewing and legal advocacy skills while also helping to address the growing homeless epidemic in Los Angeles, being a summer clerk with Public Counsel CARES is for you.

Public Counsel CARES stands for “Connecting Angelenos to Resources and Essential Services.” It also stands for the way our project not only protects General Relief (GR) and other public benefits to pushing for systemic changes and being a louder voice for Angelenos’ rights.  With nearly 30 years of service, Public Counsel’s CARES Project is the largest and most well-established legal advocacy program working on-site in multiple offices of the Los Angeles County Department of Public Social Services (DPSS). Each year hundreds of volunteer law students, attorneys and persons with no prior legal experience are trained in a one-day experience consisting of an informational seminar in the morning and advocacy in the afternoon.

As a summer law clerk, you will be able, with the supervision and support of our staff attorneys, to advocate on behalf of impoverished clients, helping them secure desperately needed shelter, food, healthcare, transportation and other social services and benefits and train others to do this work as well.

If you are interested in applying, submit your cover letter, resume, writing sample and transcript to Jack Meaney.  Please include “CARES Summer” in the subject line of your e-mail.

CENTER FOR VETERANS ADVANCEMENT

The Center for Veterans Advancement (CVA) is a national leader in veteran’s advocacy. CVA is driven by its core principle to “uphold our nation’s promise to veterans and their families.” CVA meets this core mission by providing legal representation to veterans so they may overcome barriers in procuring government benefits, employment, housing, medical care and supportive services. Veterans and their caregivers from around the nation contact CVA via our intake lines and legal clinics.

CVA is seeking a law clerk who will work with veterans, their families, and their caregivers to conduct intake, assist with legal clinics, prepare cases for submission at the state and federal level, and assist in the development and placement of cases with pro bono attorneys. CVA is currently piloting a “remote technology” clinic where pro bono attorneys conduct intakes with veterans living in remote regions of Southern California. Candidate will assist in the implementation of this clinic and help bridge the significant justice gap that exists for veterans and their families living in rural California.

We are seeking a candidate with a passion for serving low-income and homeless populations and a tie to the veteran community is a plus. Candidate does not have to be bilingual.

How to apply: Please send your cover letter, resume, transcript, and writing sample to CVA Staff Attorney Amanda Pertusati.

 

2018 ENERGY LAW STUDENT WRITING COMPETITION

The RADER Committee is pleased to announce it will once again be the lead SEER Committee sponsoring the 2018 Energy Law Student Writing Competition.

Law School Students – Students enrolled in an ABA-accredited law school during the 2017-2018 academic year are eligible to participate.  Submissions may be on any issue related to energy law (e.g., a submission may advocate a position, educate the audience on an issue, analyze a case, etc.).

Cash prizes of $1,000, $750, and $500 will be awarded to the first, second, and third place winners, respectively. 

These winners will also have their winning entries published in an upcoming RADER Committee Newsletter.  Submissions must be sent by email attachment with the subject line “Law Student Writing Competition: Energy Law.”

The deadline for submissions is 11:59 p.m. Central Time on Thursday, May 31, 2018.  If you are a law student, please consider participating in this competition.  If you know of a law student who is interested in participating, please feel free to forward this message to them.

For more information and a link to the complete competition rules visit the website.

For more information about the Committee and upcoming events, visit our RADER Committee webpage.

National Association of Women Lawyers 2018 Selma Moidel Smith Law Student Writing Competition

NAWL 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:

Entrants should submit a paper on an issue concerning women’s rights or the status of women in the law.

Essays will be accepted from students enrolled at any law school during the 2017-18 school year. The essays must be the law student author’s own work and must not have been submitted for publication elsewhere. Papers written by students for coursework or independent study during the summer, fall, or spring semesters are eligible for submission. Notwithstanding the foregoing, students may incorporate professorial feedback as part of a course requirement or supervised writing project.

FORMAT: Essays must be double-spaced in 12-point, Times New Roman font. All margins must be one inch. Entries must not exceed 15 pages of text, excluding notes, with footnotes placed as endnotes. Citation style should conform to The Bluebook: A Uniform System of Citation. Essays longer than 15 pages of text, excluding notes, or that 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.

SUBMISSION AND DEADLINE: Entries must be received by May 1, 2018. Entries received after the deadline will not be considered. Entries must provide a cover letter providing the author’s name, title of the essay, school affiliation, email address, phone number, and permanent mailing address. Entries must be submitted in the following format: email an electronic version (in Microsoft Word) to Professor Jennifer Martin.

AWARD: The author of the winning essay will receive a cash prize of $500. NAWL will also publish the winning essay in the Women Lawyers Journal. The most recent winning paper was “Interpretation as Improvement: An Analysis of Feminist Constitutional Interpretation” written Sarah Holman Loy, Pennsylvania State University School of Law. Please view paper by clicking here.

University of Miami School of Law Estate Planning LL.M. Scholarships

Philip E. Heckerling Scholarship:

The Philip E. Heckerling Scholarship is a partial-tuition scholarship available to a currently enrolled J.D. candidate or recent graduate (within the last three years) of the University of Miami School of Law with the highest J.D. grade point average (minimum 3.0 required).  Candidates must apply and be admitted to the Graduate Program as full-time students prior to June 15, 2018.

Additional Estate Planning Scholarships:

Additional scholarship assistance may be available based upon financial need or on the basis of academic merit and the potential for excellence in the field of estate planning.

For More Information: Please contact Laura Adams for additional information on available scholarships. You may also view additional details on the website.

 

University of Miami School of Law Estate Planning LL.M. Writing Competitions

The American College of Trust and Estate Counsel (ACTEC) Student Writing Competition:

A full-tuition scholarship to the Heckerling Graduate Program in Estate Planning for the 2018-2019 or 2019-2020 academic year is available to the first place winner of the American College of Trust and Estate Counsel (ACTEC) Student Writing Competition. Candidates must apply and be admitted to the Graduate Program as full-time students prior to the June 15, 2018 contest deadline to be considered for the scholarship.

The American Bar Association’s Section of Real Property, Trust and Estate Law (RPTE) Student Writing Contest:

A full-tuition scholarship to the Heckerling Graduate Program in Estate Planning for the 2018-2019 or 2019-2020 academic year is available to the first place winner of The American Bar Association’s Section of Real Property, Trust and Estate Law (RPTE) Student Writing Contest.  Candidates must apply and be admitted to the Graduate Program as full-time students prior to the May 31, 2018 contest deadline to be considered for the scholarship.

For More Information: Please contact Laura Adams for additional information on available scholarships. You may also view additional details on the website.

 

 

Benson & Bingham Annual Scholarship

In 2017, Benson & Bingham decided to give back to the community with the inception of its first annual Law Scholarship. Benson & Bingham understand the rigors of law school accompanied with the expense to become an attorney, and felt obliged to help alleviate the financial strain with their annual scholarship offer. The firm is pleased to announce that we ended up awarding not just a grand prize of $2,000, but two additional $250 runner-up awards due to the quality of the essays we received.

For 2018, we elected to keep the same eligibility requirements, however we’ve elected to continue to award two additional runner up awards. In addition, the essay questions have been changed to provide a fresh set of circumstances with which to judge scholarship applicants.

Scholarship Criteria:

In order to be eligible for the scholarship award, applicants must adhere to the following scholarship criteria:

  • Currently enrolled in or recently accepted to an accredited law school.
  • A United States citizen or permanent resident.
  • Have a cumulative GPA of 3.0 or higher. A copy of your college transcript (unofficial) must accompany the application.
  • Proof of Law School acceptance or attendance must accompany the application.
  • Applications must be received electronically by August 31, 2018 to this email.  In the subject line, please reference: Benson & Bingham Second Annual Scholarship Application.
  • Questions regarding the application or process may be submitted to the above email address. Please, No Phone Calls.

Award:

One grand prize winner will receive a one-time payment of $2,000 to be applied to the law school of their admission/attendance. Additonaly, two $250 payments will be awarded to two runner up applicants. Essays may be published by Benson & Bingham, so please refrain from submitting anything personal, vulgar or inappropriate for the web. The winner of the award will be announced by October 31st, 2018.

Scholarship Guidelines:

Entrants for our scholarship must submit a minimum of a 600-word typed essay on one of the below topics to be judged by partners Joe Benson and Ben Bingham at the conclusion of the deadline:

  • Premises Security: Given the Mandalay Bay Shooting, what steps should hotels take to insure the safety and security of their guests?
  • Consumer Product Safety: When are the affixed warnings regarding the potential risk of injury obvious enough to warrant not having them? [A product is defective for its failure to be accompanied by suitable and adequate warnings concerning its safe and proper use, if the absence of such warnings renders the product unreasonably dangerous. To be adequate a warning must be: (1) designed to reasonably catch the consumer’s attention, (2) that the language be comprehensible and give a fair indication of the specific risks attendant to use of the product, and (3) that warnings be of sufficient intensity justified by the magnitude of the risk.]

Judging the essay’s value will be contingent on the below qualities:

  • Originality of thought or provocativeness of article.
  • Attention to current law as well as statistical knowledge of the area of investigation.
  • Submissions must be 100% original and never published or disseminated at a previous time.
  • Candidates may site case law or historical record with appropriate citations to the source.

Benson & Bingham welcome any and all potential candidates who meet the above criteria and complete the application by August 31st, 2018. Good luck to all the applicants of our first annual scholarship. The winning entry’s submission as well as a press release will accompany the award when the winner is announced on October 31st, 2018.

For additional details, please visit the website.

 

Attend “A Conversation With James L. Ferraro”

James L. Ferraro JD ’83, author of Blindsided: The True Story of One Man’s Crusade Against Chemical Giant DuPont for a Boy with No Eyes will discuss his book.

March 19, 2018
12:30 – 2:00 pm
Alma Jennings Foundation Student Lounge
1311 Miller Road
Coral Gables, FL 33146

Lunch and refreshments will be provided. Attendees will receive a complimentary book.

RSVP here.

35th Annual Smith-Babcock-Williams Student Writing Competition

The Planning & Law Division of the American Planning Association announces its 35th Annual Smith-Babcock-Williams Student Writing Competition. The winning entry in the competition will be awarded a prize of $2,000 and will be submitted for publication in The Urban Lawyer, the law journal of the American Bar Association’s Section of State & Local Government Law. The Second Place paper will receive a prize of $400 and one Honorable Mention prize of $100 will also be awarded.

RULES:

  1. Eligibility. The competition is open to law students at ABA accredited law schools and planning students at schools listed in the current Guide to Undergraduate and Graduate Education in Urban and Regional Planning who are enrolled in or who will complete a program of study leading to the J.D., LL.B., Masters or Ph.D. degree during the 2017-2018 academic year. All entries must be the work of an individual, jointly-authored entries will not be considered. Entries may have been written for another purpose within the last year — e.g., a paper submitted for a course or internship — but must not have been previously published.
  1. Subject Matter. Entries should demonstrate original thought on a question of significance in either city planning or associated areas of law (e.g., land use, local government or environmental law) and will be evaluated based on: (1) originality; (2) contribution to the understanding or development of the fields of planning and law; (3) quality of scholarship; and (4) quality and organization of writing.
  1. Publication. As a condition of publication, the author grants to the American Bar Association the following rights: 1) the exclusive right of first publication of the Work throughout the world as part of the publication The Urban Lawyer; 2) the nonexclusive right to reprint the Work whenever necessary and to license use of the Work, or any part thereof, in any medium or form of communication in the English language, to others; and 3) the right to use the Work, or any part thereof, in any other publication produced by the American Bar Association. The author shall reserve all exclusive rights not specifically granted to the American Bar Association and will have the rights not specifically granted to the American Bar Association and will have the rights, after the Work has been published, to print the Work in any publication, provided that the author included in the publication the proper credit to the American Bar Association for prior publication of the work.
  1. Directions for Entries. Entries shall not exceed forty-five (45) pages with a 1″ margin on all-sides. Text should be double-spaced in a minimum ten-point pitch. Manuscripts should follow the stylistic guidelines of the Chicago Manual of Style (latest edition) published by the University of Chicago Press. All citations should be footnoted and should conform to A Uniform System of Citation (latest edition) published by the Harvard Law Review Association (the Blue Book).
  1. Submission of Entries. To enter the competition, send five (5) copies of your entry, postmarked no later than June 4, 2018, to Professor Alan Weinstein at the address below. Each copy must have two title pages: the first title page should contain the title of the entry, the name/address/e-mail of the student, and identify the student’s school and date of graduation; the second title page should contain only the title of the entry.

Send to: Professor Alan Weinstein, Cleveland-Marshall College of Law, Cleveland State University, 2121 Euclid Avenue, LB 138, Cleveland, Ohio 44115-2214.

FCBA Foundation Now Accepting Applications for its Law School Summer Internship Stipend Program and Will Soon Accept Applications for its Law School Scholarship Program

The Federal Communications Bar Association Foundation Now Accepting Applications for its Law School Summer Internship Stipend Program and Will Soon Accept Applications for its Law School Scholarship Program!

  1. The Law School Summer Internship Stipend Program:

This program provides stipends of up to $5,000 to outstanding law students employed as unpaid summer interns in positions with the FCC and other federal, state and local government agencies with a connection to the communications industry (i.e., broadcasting, cable, information technology, television, telephony, satellite, and wireless).  Applications will be accepted online starting February 6th through March 31st, 2018.

In addition, the Foundation will select one outstanding intern among those chosen to receive and additional stipend for the summer: the Max Paglin Award.  Mr. Paglin was the former General Counsel and Executive Director of the FCC and the founder of the Golden Jubilee Commission on Telecommunications, which compiled a definitive history of the Communications Act.

The Foundation considers funding from other sources in making award decisions and generally will adjust its stipend awards so that a recipient’s total funding for the internship will not exceed $7,000.

Requirements:

Students must be enrolled in an ABA accredited law school, in good academic standing, and have a pending or accepted application for an unpaid internship with a federal, state or local government entity.  Students will be selected on the basis of:

  • Essays – 30 points
  • Resume and Recommendations – 25 points
  • Academic Merit (including relevant coursework, certificate programs, journals and clinics) – 25 points
  • Nature of Work – 10 points
  • Financial Need – 10 points

Applications for internship funding should be submitted online.

  1. The FCBA Foundation Law School Scholarship:

This scholarship is open to all students enrolled at an accredited law school in the United States who are entering their second or third years of study in the Fall of 2018 and have a demonstrated interest in communications law.  Awards ranging from $2,500 to $10,000, are payable to the law school to cover the student’s tuition and other education-related expenses in the 2018-2019 academic year, and will be determined by a number of factors, including financial need and merit.  More information about the scholarship can be found here.  The application will be available soon.