Legal Writing Awards Announced
First up is James F. McDonough III, a third-year student at Emory Law School, who was recently named winner of the 2007 Burton Award for Legal Achievement.
McDonough’s entry, “The Myth of the Patent Troll: An Alternative View of the Function of Patient Deals in an Idea Economy,” makes the claim that patent trolls are quite useful, rather than absolutely useless.
The award will be presented on June 4, at an awards ceremony and dinner at the Library of Congress featuring guest speaker Bob Schieffer of NBC News. Bill Press will be the Master of Ceremonies.
____________
Next up is Aaron Lee Bell, who received the Professor Thomas F. Blackwell Memorial Award, named in honor of the late mathematician and legal writing instructor killed in 2002 by a law student from Nigeria who went on a shooting rampage after being expelled from the Appalachian School of Law.
The annual award, which is sponsored by the Association of Legal Writing Directors and the Legal Writing Institute, is presented to a third-year law student who exemplifies Blackwell’s outstanding qualities.
____________
Let’s not forget Laurel Oates, director of Seattle University’s legal writing program and cofounder of the Legal Writing Institute, who won the Burton Award for Outstanding Contributions to Legal Writing Education.
____________
Nor should we forget Les Jacobs, a partner with Thompson Hine LLP, who won a Burton award for his article, Criminal Enforcement of Antitrust Laws – Problems with the U.S. Model, which rebuts a speech made by Thomas Barnett, an assistant attorney general in the Antitrust Division of the U.S. Department of Justice.
