Student Activities > Writing Competitions > Writing Competition Archive > 2007 Adam M. Milani Disability Law Writing Competition
2007 Adam M. Milani Disability Law Writing Competition
Expired: June 1 , 2007.
The Adam A. Milani Disability Law Writing Competition is sponsored by the Mercer University School of Law and the American Bar Association Commission on Mental and Physical Disability Law. Adam A. Milani--a passionate disability rights activist and an accomplished scholar--was well known for his publication of numerous practical books and articles in the field of disability discrimination. He taught legal writing as well as the law of disability discrimination and always encouraged his students to become prolific and outstanding writers.
The purposes of the competition are to promote greater interest in and understanding of the field of disability law and to encourage excellent legal writing skills in law students.
Topics
The submission may address any aspect of disability law, theory, or practice the contestant chooses.
Categories and Requirements
The competition invites submission in two categories, the Essay category and the Law Practice category.
Essay Category: Submission in the essay category should be essays or law review-type articles on a disability law topic. Essay submissions are limited to 20 typewritten pages, including footnotes and endnotes. The text of the submission must be double-spaced, with twelve-point font and one-inch margins. Footnotes may be in ten or eleven-point type.
Law Practice Category: Submissions in the law practice category should be trial-level or appellate briefs on a disability law topic. The text of a submission must be double-spaced, with twelve-point font and one-inch margins. The Question(s) Presented section, the Statement of the Facts/Statement of the Case section, the Argument section, and the Conclusion together are limited to 20 pages. Briefs may include any other customary component of a similar court document, but those components will not be evaluated.
If the submission covers both a disability law issue and a non-disability law issue, only the disability law issue will be evaluated. For papers written originally for a legal writing class, only two papers per legal writing professor per year will be considered. If more than two students of a particular professor desire to submit a paper, the professor shall choose which paper will be submitted.
Prizes
First Prize will range between $300 and $500, depending on whether two awards are given. The first prize winner in the essay category may also receive an invitation to publish in the ABA Mental and Physical Disability Law Reporter. The name of the winner(s) in each category will be posted online at the Mercer University School of Law web site
Entry Information
Entries for the competition must be submitted by mail to:
"Adam A. Milani Disability Law Writing Competition"
Mercer University
School of Law
1021 Georgia Ave.
Macon, GA 31207-0001
Submissions must be postmarked by June 1, 2007,
by the U.S. mail or a recognized commercial express service.
Entries submitted by fax will not be accepted. The
contestant's name and other identifying markings such as school name
are not to be on any copy of the submitted entry.
The staff at Mercer University School of Law will assign a random
number to each entry and will record this number on all copies of each
submission. Neither the contestant's identity nor his or her
academic institution will be known to any Milani Competition Judge.
Two copies of the entry must be submitted along with a disk containing an
electronic copy of the submission in WordPerfect or Word format.
Clear, legible photocopies without changes are acceptable. Each entrant
may submit only one entry. Entries must be accompanied by the
entry form.
The form and
these rules
also appear on the Legal Writing page of the
Academics section of the Mercer University School of Law web
site, www.law.mercer.edu.
Eligibility
The Essay and Law Practice categories are open to all second and third
year full-time law students (and second through fourth year part-time
students) who attend a law school in the United States. Full time students
who are not law students but who write law-related papers as part
of a course at an American law school are also eligible to submit an entry
for this competition. The Law Practice category is also open to all
first year law students enrolled in a Legal Writing course.
Employees of Mercer University School of Law (except for students working less than
20 hours per week) are not eligible to enter the competition.
If, prior to June 1, the author has accepted an offer of
publication, the submission is not eligible for consideration in this
competition. If, after June 1, an entrant accepts
an offer to publish a submission, it is the obligation
of the entrant to notify the Milani Competition of this acceptance
and withdraw the article from consideration.
Authorship
Each entry shall be the original work of a single individual and constitute an
independent subject. Jointly authored submission are not eligible.
Essay Submissions: For entries in the Essay category,
the author must perform all the key tasks of identifying the
topic, researching it, analyzing it, formulating positions and
arguments, and writing and revising the paper for himself
or herself. The author may inform another of the progress he
or she has made in performing these tasks and accept a
reasonable amount of responsive advice from academicians or
practitioners in the field, but the author must avoid collaboration
with other students. The final product should reflect the author's
own ideas and work and not those of others.
Law Practice Submissions: For entries in the Law Practice category,
the author must perform all the key tasks of researching, writing,
and revising the paper for himself or herself, but may receive a
reasonable amount of advice from academicians or practitioners.
Except for any discussions or other activities that occur as part
of course activities approved by the student's professor, the
author must avoid collaboration with other students. If the brief
is written as an assignment in a legal writing class and if the
student was assigned to produce the brief along with a partner,
the student may submit the brief but must identify the portions
for which the student was the sole author. Only those parts of
the brief will be evaluated. Under no other circumstances may
any of the written product be produced by another.
Briefs will not be penalized for arguing a position that would
limit disability rights rather than expand them.
Criteria and Judging
All entries will be judged anonymously by the Milani Competition Judges,
who will select the winning submission(s). The Director of the
Milani Writing Competition at Mercer University School of Law will
notify the award winner(s). The Judges reserve the right not to
award any prizes if it is determined that no entries are of
sufficient quality to merit selection that year.
Essay Category: Entries in the Essay category will be judged based
on the following criteria: clarity of the theme or thesis
presented; significance of the topic to the field of disability
law; originality and creativity of topic treatment; quality of
analysis; quality of research and authority provided; and
technical quality of writing, including organization, grammar,
syntax, and form.
Law Practice Category: Entries in the Law Practice category will be
judged based on the following criteria: quality of research and
authority provided; accuracy and clarity of the analysis;
compliance with standard conventions of similar court documents;
and technical quality of writing, including organization,
grammar, syntax, and form.