University of Pennsylvania Law Review Public Interest Essay Competition

Announcing the University of Pennsylvania Law Review’s Seventh Annual Public Interest Essay Competition

The University of Pennsylvania Law Review is pleased to announce its seventh annual Public Interest Essay Competition. The Competition is a national writing competition for student-authored articles on the topic of social justice and public interest law. The winner will be awarded a $5,000 grant to implement a public interest project related to the article and a $500 cash prize. The Law Review is committed to improving the surrounding community in Philadelphia and the national legal community as a whole. Through this Competition, the Law Review seeks to serve this mission by publishing serious legal scholarship focused on social justice and public interest law.

 

Competition Details

Prizes:

The winning essay will be published in the University of Pennsylvania Law Review Online. The author will receive a $5,000 grant to support his/her related public interest work or the work of a non-profit organization or pro bono clinic. In addition, the author will receive a $500 cash prize.

Topic:

Submissions must focus on a specific legal issue within the realm of public interest law, including any issue relating to social justice or advancing the general welfare and good of the public. In addition, the author must include a brief grant proposal for $5,000 to support public interest work related to the essay topic. We encourage topics that are national in breadth or impact, rather than state-limited, but this is not required.

Deadline for Submission:

The University of Pennsylvania Law Review is currently accepting submissions for its Seventh Annual Public Interest Essay Competition. The deadline for submission is February 1, 2022, via the online submission portal.

Eligibility:

The competition is open to all current law students (Classes of 2022, 2023, and 2024) from any ABA-accredited American law school as well as recent graduates of such institutions from the classes of 2014 – 2021. Submissions are limited to one per person and must be an original, unpublished academic essay.

Essay and Grant Proposal Requirements:

Essays must be submitted in PDF format and include footnote citations. Submissions must have a title and be no longer than 6,000 words, including footnotes. All submissions will be considered anonymously. Therefore, students must ensure that their essays do not contain any identifying information, such as name, class year, or institutional affiliation.

The grant proposal must be 500 words or less and request support for a non-profit organization, a pro bono clinic, or for the author’s own public interest work. The cause supported must relate to the essay topic and the best proposals will be designed to implement the novel legal thinking argued for in the essay. The proposal must include contact information for the primary recipient of the funds. If the author proposes to support a non-profit or clinic, he/she must also include a brief description of the organization’s activities and mission.

Judging Process and Notification of Winner:

The Penn Law Review Public Interest Committee will consider all submissions anonymously. The best submissions will demonstrate originality and superior literary effort that advances the interests and understanding of a specific topic within the broad arena of public interest and the law. That submission will include a thoughtful proposal for how the grant could help to implement the theory proposed. The winner will be announced in the spring of 2021 and will be published in Volume 170 of the University of Pennsylvania Law Review Online.

Questions:

All questions can be submitted to Apratim Vidyarthi, the Volume 170 Philanthropy Editor, at apratimv@pennlaw.upenn.edu.