Milani Disability Writing Competition

Here is the announcement of the Adam Milani Memorial Disability Writing Competition:

Adam A. Milani Disability Law Writing Competition

Sponsored by the Mercer University School of Law; sponsorship by the American Bar Association Commission on Mental and Physical Disability Law is pending.


Adam A. Milani

Adam A. Milani – a passionate disability rights activist and 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.

Purposes of the Adam A. Milani Disability Law Writing Competition

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 students enrolled in ABA accredited law schools.

Topics

The submission may address any aspect of disability law, theory or practice the contestant chooses.

Categories and Requirements

The competition invites submissions in two categories, the Essay category and the Law Practice category.

Essay Category: Submissions 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 or endnotes. The text of the submission must be double-spaced, with twelve-point font and one-inch margins.

Law Practice Category: Submissions in the law practice category should be briefs or office memoranda on a disability law topic. The text of a submission must be double-spaced, with twelve-point font and one-inch margins. Office memoranda submissions are limited to 20 typewritten pages. For briefs, the Question(s) Presented section, Statement of the Facts / Statement of the Case section, the Argument section, and the Conclusion 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 one student of a particular professor desires to submit his or her 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 winning submission in each category will be posted online at the Mercer University School of Law website.

Entry information

Entries for the competition must be submitted by mail to the “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 15, 2006, by 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 identify 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 Word Perfect or Word format. Clear, legible photocopies without changes are acceptable. Each entrant may submit only one entry. Contestants will receive confirmation of the entry, and winners will be notified by mail of their selection. Entries must be accompanied by the enclosed entry form. The form and these rules also appear on the Mercer University School of Law website, 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). The Law Practice category is also open to all first year law students who are enrolled in a Legal Writing course. For the first year of the competition (the academic year 2005-2006), students who met these criteria during 2004-2005 are also eligible.

Employees of Mercer University School of Law (except for work-study students) are not eligible to enter the competition. Submissions that have been accepted for publication prior to submission to the Milani Writing Competition are not eligible. If a student’s submission is accepted for publication after submission to the Milani Writing Competition, the student must inform the publisher that the submission may be published by the ABA if selected as a winner.

Authorship

Each entry shall be the original work of a single individual and constitute an independent subject. Jointly authored submissions 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 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. The author must avoid collaboration with other students, except for any discussions that occur as part of course activities approved by the student’s professor. Under no circumstances may any of the written product be produced by another.

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.