THE COMPETITION
The Bankruptcy Litigation Committee of the American Bankruptcy Institute ("ABI") is pleased to invite students to participate in its Second Annual ABI Bankruptcy Law Student Writing Competition. First, Second and Third Place prizes will be awarded.
WRITING TOPIC
We invite papers on current issues regarding bankruptcy jurisdiction, bankruptcy litigation, or evidence in bankruptcy cases or proceedings. For clarification, the paper may address business or consumer cases and may include matters such as bankruptcy sales, plan confirmation and other topics that involve jurisdiction, litigation or evidence in the bankruptcy courts.
DATES OF COMPETITION
The Competition will take place from January 1, 2010 through March 1, 2010. Papers submitted after March 1, 2010 will not be considered. (Our hope is that this Competition will dovetail nicely with the school's legal writing course so that students can satisfy one of the writing requirements for the course while creating an entry for the Competition.)
PARTICIPATING LAW SCHOOLS
Students from participating law schools will be eligible to submit a paper for this Competition. A participating law school is any law school at which a law professor agrees to review the student's paper prior to submission to ensure quality. The professor should review the paper and withhold it from submission if the professor determines that the paper is not of publishable quality. The professor may suggest revisions and review again to reconsider whether it is publishable. ABI does not require that the professor grade the paper or attempt to screen papers that are otherwise of suitable quality, but ABI does expect the professor to exclude from submission those papers that (1) are poorly written, (2) suffer from a lack of attention to detail and diligence, or (3) reflect an incorrect statement of the law and/or an implausible suggestion for the direction/development of the law.
PRIZE SPONSORS
- 1st - McGuireWoods
- 2nd - Invotex
- 3rd - King & Spalding LLP
COMPETITION AWARDS
Winners of the Competition will be announced on May 3, 2010. Winners will be presented with certificates from the ABI recognizing their achievement and law schools will be notified so that this achievement can be noted in students' records. In addition, the First Place writer will receive $1,000 cash, plus publication of the paper in the prestigious ABI Journal, and a one (1) year membership to the ABI. The Second Place writer will receive a cash award of $750, plus publication of the paper in the ABI Bankruptcy Litigation Committee's quarterly newsletter, and a one (1) year membership to the ABI. The Third Place writer will receive a cash award of $500, plus publication of the paper in the ABI Bankruptcy Litigation Committee's quarterly newsletter, and a one (1) year membership to the ABI.
COMPETITION RULES
Papers must be 10-12 double-spaced pages on 8.5 x 11" paper with 1" margins. Papers must be written in 12 point, Times New Roman font. Please use footnotes, not endnotes. Footnotes do count toward the page limit, but may be 10 point font and single spaced. Papers must otherwise comply with the Guidelines for submissions to the ABI Journal found at:
http://www.abiworld.org/Content/NavigationMenu/Publications/ABIJournal/ SubmissionGuidelines/ABI_Journal_Submiss1.htm; provided, however, that the papers must have numbered pages. Papers will be submitted by students uploading the papers in PDF format to the ABI's website at the following URL on or before March 1, 2010:
papers.abi.org.
- Papers submitted must be in PDF form with a '.pdf' extension.
- Maximum size allowed 2MB.
- Maximum number of pages allowed is 12.
- Only one paper may be submitted. If a mistake was made, please create a new account to submit the paper.
- Contest winners will be contacted via email.
- The certifying professor must send an email from his/her email account directly to papers@abiworld.org certifying that he/she reviewed the student's paper. A simple statement will suffice, such as, "I certify that I reviewed Joe Jones' paper entitled ‘A Current Issue in Bankruptcy' before Mr. Jones submitted it to the ABI competition. Signed, Professor Smith."
- Winners must agree to have their papers edited by ABI staff and leaders prior to publication.
For more information, please contact
papers@abiworld.org.