Legal Writing Competitions: Put Your Research Papers to Work

We recently blogged about the UMKC Law Review 1L Story contest, which offers one lucky law student or recent grad a $500 prize and publication, simply for recounting a true story about your 1L experience. Interested students still have until October 23 to submit an entry (details), but perhaps autobiography doesn’t appeal to everyone. Would you rather put some of your law school research papers to work double-duty, and earn prizes including cash, publication, and/or bragging rights?

Legal writing competitions are plentiful, and offer law students many opportunities to sharpen research and writing skills. Many students already have worthy entries left over from law school classes—the trick is discovering the contests themselves. Fortunately, there are a number of useful resources which compile contest announcements. Here are some of the Goodson Blogson’s favorites:

• Legal Writing Competitions Blog (http://legalwritingcompetitions.blogspot.com): A great place for the latest announcements, compiled by the University of Arkansas School of Law.
• University of Idaho Legal Writing Competitions (http://www.law.uidaho.edu/default.aspx?pid=77379): Frequently-updated and organized by subject as well as by deadline.
• University of Richmond Essay Competitions for Law Students (http://law.richmond.edu/essaycontests/list.php): Another great compilation from a law school, sortable by subject, deadline, sponsor, and (for the greedy) prize value.
• American Bar Association Legal Writing Competitions Page (http://www.abanet.org/lsd/competitions/writing-contests/): A one-stop shop for all competitions sponsored by the various sections of the ABA.

For help polishing those contest entries, check out some of the many legal writing titles in the Goodson Law Library, including Volokh’s Academic Legal Writing: Law Review Articles, Student Notes, Seminar Papers, and Getting on Law Review (KF250 .V65 2005) and Fajans’ Scholarly Writing for Law Students: Seminar Papers, Law Review Notes, and Law Review Competition Papers (Reserves KF250 .F35 2005).