Deadline
Award Amount

$1,000-$10,000


The Judge John R. Brown Scholarship Foundation is pleased to announce the twenty-eight 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 2021 will be as follows:

$10,000 First Place,
$5,000 Second Place,
$3,000 Third Place,
$1,000 Finalist,
$1,000 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., Tenth Floor, 1177 West Loop South, Houston, Texas 77027-9007. 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 28, 2021. 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 2021 recipient of the Brown Award will be notified by December 3, 2021, and listed with the other finalists at the website www.brownsims.com/about-brown-sims/affiliations/judge-john-r-brown-award/.