Rules for the 2025 Brown Award for Excellence in Legal Writing
January 31, 2025
Rules for the 2025 Brown Award of $15,000 For Excellence in Legal Writing
The Judge John R. Brown Scholarship Foundation is pleased to announce the thirty-second annual Brown Award. The Award honors excellence in legal writing in American law schools. Any law student currently enrolled in an accredited law school in the United States seeking a J.D. or LL.B degree is eligible to submit a paper for the Award. The amounts awarded for 2025 will be as follows:
$15,000 First Place,
$7,500 Second Place,
$5,000 Third Place,
$2,500 Finalist,
$2,500 Finalist, and
$5,000 to the Scholarship Fund selected by the Dean of the law school in which the First-Place candidate is enrolled.
In order to be considered, two copies of a current legal writing must be submitted to the Foundation c/o Kenneth G. Engerrand, Brown Sims, P.C., 1990 Post Oak Blvd., Suite 1800, Houston, Texas 77056. The article must be accompanied by a letter of recommendation from a law school faculty member or legal professional other than the author of the paper. Only one paper may be submitted on behalf of any student, and only one paper may be sponsored by any faculty member or legal professional. The submission must be postmarked no later than May 30, 2025.
The submission must contain a separate sheet containing the title of the paper; the name, physical address, telephone number, and email address of the student; the name of the student’s law school; and the name, title, physical address, and email address of the student’s sponsor. There is no page limitation or restriction on the topic except that the writing must be on a legal subject. Papers that have been submitted to a law review for publication are eligible, but the submission must be of the paper in its form before it was edited by anyone other than the author.
The Foundation will appoint a final judging panel consisting of a law school dean, a federal judge, and a law school professor. The Foundation will not return any material submitted to the Foundation. The 2025 recipient of the Brown Award will be notified by December 31, 2025, and listed with the other finalists at the website www.brownsims.com/about-brown-sims/affiliations/judge-john-r-brown-award/.
2024 Brown Award Winners
The Judge John R. Brown Scholarship Foundation is pleased to announce the winner of the 2024 Brown Award for Excellence in Legal Writing:
First Place: The Ciceronian Origins of American Law and Constitutionalism, by Jack Ferguson, sponsored by Jeffrey A. Pojanowski, Biolchini Family Professor of Law, Notre Dame Law School ($15,000 award plus a donation of $5,000 to the Scholarship Fund selected by the Dean of the Law School);
Second Place: Streaming, It’s in the Game: Why Fair Use Should Protect Video Game Live-Streamers Using Copyrighted or Trademarked Content, by Drake Broussard, sponsored by Geoffrey Scott, Professor of Law, Pennsylvania State University Law School ($7,500 award);
Third Place: Section 2 of the Sherman Act: Unconstitutional Vagueness and What to Do about It, by George Sakkopoulos, sponsored by Linda Jeng, Adjunct Professor, Georgetown University Law Center ($5,000 award);
Finalist: The Vertical Nondelegation Paradigm, by Seumas Macneil, sponsored by Nicholas Parrillo, William K. Townsend Professor of Law, Yale University Law School ($2,500 award).
Finalist: The Conflict Between the Flag State Principle and the Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act and how the DC Circuit Got It Wrong, by Evan Long-Quian, sponsored by Michael F. Sturley, Fannie Coplin Regents Chair, University of Texas Law School ($2,500 award).
2024 Brown Award Finalists Announcement
The Judge John R. Brown Scholarship Foundation is pleased to announce the five finalists for the 2024 Brown Award for Excellence in Legal Writing. These papers will be submitted to the final panel of judges to choose the first, second, and third place winners:
The Ciceronian Origins of American Law and Constitutionalism, by Jack Ferguson, sponsored by Jeffrey A. Pojanowski, Biolchini Family Professor of Law, Notre Dame Law School;
The Conflict Between the Flag State Principle and the Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act and how the DC Circuit Got It Wrong, by Evan Long-Quian, sponsored by Michael F. Sturley, Fannie Coplin Regents Chair, University of Texas Law School;
Section 2 of the Sherman Act: Unconstitutional Vagueness and What to Do about It, by George Sakkopoulos, sponsored by Linda Jeng, Adjunct Professor, Georgetown University Law Center;
Streaming, It’s in the Game: Why Fair Use Should Protect Video Game Live-Streamers Using Copyrighted or Trademarked Content, by Drake Broussard, sponsored by Geoffrey Scott, Professor of Law, Pennsylvania State University Law School;
The Vertical Nondelegation Paradigm, by Seumas Macneil, sponsored by Nicholas Parrillo, William K. Townsend Professor of Law, Yale University Law School.
Rules for the 2024 Brown Award for Excellence in Legal Writing
JANUARY 31, 2024
The Judge John R. Brown Scholarship Foundation is pleased to announce the thirty-first annual Brown Award. The Award honors excellence in legal writing in American law schools. Any law student currently enrolled in an accredited law school in the United States seeking a J.D. or LL.B degree is eligible to submit a paper for the Award. The amounts awarded for 2024 will be as follows:
$15,000 First Place,
$7,500 Second Place,
$5,000 Third Place,
$2,500 Finalist,
$2,500 Finalist, and
$5,000 to the Scholarship Fund selected by the Dean of the law school in which the First-Place candidate is enrolled.
In order to be considered, two copies of a current legal writing must be submitted to the Foundation c/o Kenneth G. Engerrand, Brown Sims, P.C., 1990 Post Oak Blvd., Suite 1800, Houston, Texas 77056. The article must be accompanied by a letter of recommendation from a law school faculty member or legal professional other than the author of the paper. Only one paper may be submitted on behalf of any student, and only one paper may be sponsored by any faculty member or legal professional. The submission must be postmarked no later than May 31, 2024.
The submission must contain a separate sheet containing the title of the paper; the name, physical address, telephone number, and email address of the student; and the name, title, physical address, and email address of the student’s sponsor. There is no page limitation or restriction on the topic except that the writing must be on a legal subject. Papers that have been submitted to a law review for publication are eligible, but the submission must be of the paper in its form before it was edited by anyone other than the author.
The Foundation will appoint a final judging panel consisting of a law school dean, a federal judge, and a law school professor. The Foundation will not return any material submitted to the Foundation. The 2024 recipient of the Brown Award will be notified by December 31, 2024, and listed with the other finalists at the website www.brownsims.com/about-brown-sims/affiliations/judge-john-r-brown-award/.
2023 Brown Award Winners
January 16, 2024
The Judge John R. Brown Scholarship Foundation is pleased to announce the winners for the 2023 Brown Award for Excellence in Legal Writing
First Place:
The Myth of Anonymity: De-Identified Data as Legal Fiction (Elodie Currier, recommended by Lisa Schultz Bressman, Associate Dean, Vanderbilt Law School) ($15,000 award plus a donation of $5,000 to the Scholarship Fund selected by the Dean of Vanderbilt Law School);
Second Place:
Collapsing Admiralty’s Jurisdictional and Choice of Law Tests (Matthew Wurst, recommended by Michael Sturley, Professor, University of Texas Law School) ($7,500 award);
Third Place:
Severability and Standing Puzzles in the Law of Removal Power (Jack Ferguson, recommended by William K. Kelley, Professor, Notre Dame Law School) ($5,000 award);
Finalists:
The Right to Refuse to Deal, the Essential Facilities Doctrine, and the Digital Economy (George Sakkopoulos, recommended by Linda Jeng, Adjunct Professor, Georgetown University Law Center, Senior Lecturing Fellow, Duke Law School) ($2,500 award);
“Traditional Notions” in the Modern Age: Reassessing Keeton Through a Post-Bristol-Myers Lens (E. Reed Ferguson, recommended by Dean Peter B. Rutledge, University of Georgia School of Law) ($2,500 award).
