Calling all second-year and third-year law students with an interest in consumer protection and data privacy law! The American Bar Association ("ABA") Antitrust Law Section ("Section") Consumer Protection Committee ("Committee") is hosting a student essay writing contest ("Contest") for 2024-2025. Each contestant /must follow the Official Rules and Additional Rules of the competition detailed herein.
2024 Harvey Saferstein Consumer Protection Committee Student Essay Contest
How to Enter: Eligible contestants include second-year and third-year law students. Eligibility to participate in this Contest or to win prizes is limited to an individual who at the time of entry is:
- at least 21 years of age;
- a legal resident of the United States; and
- a student who is enrolled in a law school that is ABA-accredited, in each case, at the time of submission.
Contestant need not be a member of the ABA or the Section. Limit 1 entry and prize per contestant. Employees, officers, directors, contractors, agents and representatives of the ABA and their immediate families and household members are ineligible to enter the Contest. The ABA's determination of eligibility, in its sole discretion, is final.
What: Participants are required to submit an essay exploring a relevant and timely consumer protection or data privacy issue. Other topics, including antitrust, will not be considered. Last year’s winning entry can be found here. Should you have questions regarding eligibility, please contact Becky Lehner ([email protected]).
- Entry form and essay should be submitted to Becky Lehner, Program Specialist, American Bar Association, Antitrust Law Section, via email at [email protected].
- Download the application form here.
- The ABA is not responsible for errors or for lost, late, or misdirected email, or telecommunication or hardware or software failures, including by reason of any bug or computer virus or other failure.
- Essays must be:
- the original work of the entrant;
- in the English language;
- written during 2024 or the current academic year;
- written by a single author
- submitted in electronic format (Word or PDF);
- a minimum of 10 pages in length, double-spaced, including footnotes, with 12-point font and 1- inch margins; and
- specifically written for this Contest; a law school class, seminar, or independent study; or a law review or journal note, comment, or article.
- All entries are final. No revisions are accepted.
- Please note: Entries that do not meet these requirements will be disqualified.
When: The ABA will accept entries via email through midnight (CST) February 7, 2025 and will not consider any entry received after the due date and time. The winning essays—chosen by the Committee leadership— will be announced February 24, 2025.
The leadership of the Committee will judge all essays. The decision of the judges is final.
The winner(s) will be notified by email by 11:59 PM (CST) Monday, February 24, 2025. The winner(s) must acknowledge and confirm agreement to the terms and conditions of winning the Contest no later than March 3, 2025. If a prize winner:
- cannot be located (e.g., an email notification or prize is returned as undeliverable, or does not respond to an award email notification by March 3, 2024);
- is found to be ineligible (as determined solely by the ABA); or
- fails to execute an affidavit or other documentation as required by the ABA, the ABA may consider such prize winner to have forfeited the prize, and may, at its sole option, award the prize to another contestant.
The ABA reserves the right not to award any prize(s) if, in the ABA's sole judgment (based upon the Committee's recommendation), the quality of submitted entries does not merit award(s) or publication.
Why: The Committee will select three winners. First place will receive a cash scholarship of $5,000, plus complimentary registration (and travel expenses) to the ABA Antitrust Law Section ’s 2025 Spring Meeting in Washington, DC. If the Spring Meeting is held virtually the winner will be invited to attend virtually, but no transportation costs will be awarded. If the Spring Meeting remains an in-person meeting, the winner will receive an amount, determined by the Committee, to defray transportation and accommodation cost. If the winner resides within the Washington, DC area, the ABA will defray local transportation costs. Second place will receive a cash scholarship of $3,000 and Third place will receive a cash scholarship of $2,000. In addition, the top essay, along with a biography of the winning student, will be published in an ABA publication.
- The Sponsors may substitute a prize of equal or greater value in its sole discretion. Prizes are non-transferable and cannot be substituted by the winner. Cash equivalent for prizes is not available. The ABA makes no warranties with regard to the prizes.
- Winners will be solely responsible for reporting and payment of all taxes (federal, state, local or other) on prizes, which will include the value of any accommodations and airfare. Winners will be required to complete an IRS Form W-9, affidavit of eligibility, tax acknowledgment, publicity release (except where prohibited) and liability waiver. All forms must be completed and returned to the Section within 5 business days of receipt and prior to the delivery of any prize, or prizes will be considered forfeited and another winner may be named.
Take advantage of this contest to get some cash in your pocket, network with members in the Antitrust Bar, and get your work published in a major ABA publication! For more information, including how to apply, please review the additional rules below. Best of luck!
Applicants should send questions to Becky Lehner, Program Specialist, American Bar Association, Antitrust Law Section, via email at [email protected].
ADDITIONAL RULES
Odds of Winning: Chances of winning may vary depending on the number of entries. However, Sponsor reserves the right not to award any prize if the judges determine that no entries are of sufficient quality to merit selection that year.
After the Section has notified the prize winners, it will post the name of the winners on its website.
License/Grant of Rights:
- By entering, the winning entrant consents to the publication of her/his entry by the ABA, understands that such publication is not guaranteed and is at the sole discretion of the ABA, and grants the ABA the following rights: (i) the exclusive worldwide right of first publication of their entry in any and all ABA media or form of communication (provided, however, that an essay that is pending publication in any other media or communication may be submitted, so long as the ABA has the right to publish the essay first); (ii) the non-exclusive worldwide right, in ABA's sole discretion, to use, transcribe, publish, reproduce, distribute, sell (as part of an ABA publication) or display the entry, alone or in conjunction with other materials; (iii) the right to edit the essay to conform to the publication's standards of style, technological requirements, language, grammar and punctuation, provided the meaning of the essay is not materially altered; and (iv) the non-exclusive worldwide right to use the winner's name and likeness in connection with the essay or this Contest, in each case, without further compensation.
- The winning entrant must execute a separate publication agreement giving the ABA the publication rights enumerated above and the right to use the essay for any other purpose related to the ABA mission.
- If the winners fail to sign the agreement within 5 days of receipt, the prize will be considered forfeited and another winner may be named.
- By entering this Contest, the contestant represents that his/her essay is original content and does not infringe upon the intellectual property rights of others.
Conditions of Participation: By participating, each entrant agrees to these Official Rules and the decisions of the Sponsor and releases and discharges the Sponsor, including but not limited to the ABA, the Section, any subsidiary and affiliated entities, and each of their respective officers, directors, members, employees, independent contractors, agents, representatives, successors and assigns (collectively "Released Parties) from any and all liability whatsoever in connection with this Contest, including, without limitation, legal claims, costs, injuries, losses or damages, demands or actions of any kind (including, without limitation, personal injuries, death, damage to, loss or destruction of property, rights of publicity or privacy, defamation, or portrayal in a false light) (collectively "Claims). Except where prohibited, acceptance of a prize constitutes a release by any winner of the Released Parties of any and all Claims in connection with the administration of this Contest and the use, misuse or possession of any prize. All entries submitted to the ABA become the property of the ABA and will not be returned; however, entrants who do not win may submit their entries for publication elsewhere. All expenses involved in preparing and submitting an entry are the sole responsibility of the entrant. Sponsor is not responsible for errors or for lost, late, or misdirected mail or email, or telecommunication or hardware or software failures, including by reason of any bug or computer virus or other failure. Sponsor may cancel, modify or terminate the Contest if it is not capable of completion as planned, including by reason of infection by computer virus, tampering, unauthorized intervention, force majeure or technical difficulties of any kind.
Artificial Intelligence: The ABA prohibits the use of all generative artificial intelligence, including large language models, to create any portion of a contestant’s written submission for this competition whether in the research, writing, or editing phase. Generative AI in this context includes, but is not limited to, OpenAI’s “GPT” series, BLOOM, Jasper, BERT, Galactica, and Lex. Note that for these purposes, AI does not include basic tools for checking grammar, spelling, references, etc. Upon submission of the work product, contestants must affirm that they did not utilize AI in the preparation of their written work product. The ABA reserves the right to screen submissions for use of AI through an AI detector. Contestants utilizing AI to generate their work product in whole or in part will be disqualified. If it is determined after the winner is announced and the prize is awarded that the winning contestant utilized AI to generate the written submission in whole or in part, then the contestant will forfeit the winning designation and shall return the prize. A new winner will then be selected.
Laws and Regulations: This Contest is governed by U.S. law and all relevant federal, state, and local laws and regulations apply. By entering, all participants agree that the Contest shall be governed by the laws of the State of Illinois, that the courts of Illinois shall have exclusive jurisdiction, and that Cook County, Illinois shall be the venue for any dispute or litigation relating to or arising from the Contest. Void where prohibited by law.
Opt-Out Option: Any individual may elect to opt out of receiving future Contest mailings from the ABA by calling the ABA Service Center at 800-285-2221.
Privacy Policy/Data Collection: Information provided by entrants in connection with this Contest is subject to the ABA's privacy policy available at http://www.americanbar.org/utility/privacy.html
Sponsor: The Contest is sponsored by the American Bar Association through its Antitrust Law Section.
American Bar Association
Antitrust Law Section
321 N. Clark Street Chicago, IL 60654-
2024 Winners
Congratulations to Zachary Hunt for his first place essay, “Port in a Storm: Colorado’s “Safe Harbor” Settlement as a Template for Online Lending Reform” !
Zachary Hunt is a third-year student at Cornell Law School, where his activities include serving as Senior Articles Editor of the Cornell Law Review and as a student intern in the Cornell Securities Law Clinic. During law school, Zachary spent his 1L summer interning for the Honorable Charlene Edwards Honeywell of the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Florida and his 2L summer at White & Case in Miami. Zachary holds a master’s degree in finance from the University of South Florida and received his undergraduate degree from the University of Florida.
Eva Thomas is a 2L at UC Berkeley School of Law, where she advocates for low-income consumers and tenants through the East Bay Community Law Center's clinics. Eva's past experience includes capital criminal defense at the Habeas Corpus Resource Center; worker, consumer, and civil rights advocacy at Terrell Marshall Law Group; and legal aid at Legal Services of Northern California. During summer 2024, Eva will serve as a law clerk for workers' rights cases at Feinberg Jackson Worthman & Wasow LLP.
Samara Trilling is a 2L at Harvard Law School interested in strengthening anti-monopoly law, building worker power and regulating discriminatory machine learning algorithms. In her seven years as a software engineer, Samara built anti-eviction tools at Justfix, city master-planning software at Sidewalk Labs and digital divide and democratic news reporting tools at Google. She received an Aspen Institute fellowship to write machine learning policy recommendations. Samara has a degree in computer science from Columbia University with a specialization in artificial intelligence and a concentration in history. At Harvard, she serves on the board of the Law and Political Economy Association, the Antitrust Association and Labor and Employment Action Project. Samara loves hiking, collects books on the history of computing, and plans to build a queer land co-op with friends after law school. She interned in the Technology and Digital Platforms section of the Department of Justice's Antitrust Division last summer and will work in plaintiff-side antitrust law at DiCello Levitt this summer.
2023 Winners
Congratulations to Elodie Currier for her first place essay, “The Myth of Anonymity: De-Identified Data as Legal Fiction” !
Elodie Currier is a 3rd year student at Vanderbilt Law School, where she serves as an Articles Editor for the Vanderbilt Law Review and captain of the Jessup International Moot Court team. After graduation in May of 2023, she will serve as a clerk for the Federal District Court for the Western District of Tennessee. Elodie is a graduate of Georgetown University's School of Foreign Service.
Miranda Kennedy is a native of Las Vegas, Nevada, and holds a B.S.B.A. cum laude in International Business with minors in Spanish and Violin Performance. While there, she co-founded and co-directed the University of Nevada, Las Vegas chapter of Camp Kesem, a national non-profit that brings summer camps to children affected by a parent’s cancer. Miranda took a semester to study abroad in Bilbao, Spain. She also studied the violin for 13 years, and throughout those years, she taught private violin lessons and performed around the Las Vegas Valley. Miranda is currently a 2L student at the Gonzaga University School of Law and is interested in working within the realm of civil law, with a particular interest in business, after graduation. In 2022, she worked as a summer law clerk for the law firm of Paul C. Ray in Las Vegas. Currently, Miranda is member of the Gonzaga Law Review editorial staff and is a legal intern at Witherspoon Brajcich McPhee in Spokane, Washington. This summer, Miranda will be working as a 2L summer law clerk at Alverson Taylor & Sanders in Las Vegas. After graduation, Miranda plans to take the Nevada Bar.
Katherine Wang is a 2L at UC Berkeley School of Law, where she leads Privacy Law at Berkeley and serves on the executive board of Berkeley Technology Law Journal, Coalition of Minorities in Technology Law, and Asian Pacific American Law Students Association. She was a Summer Associate at Morrison Foerster and a Technology and Civil Liberties Intern at the ACLU of Northern California. Outside law school, Katherine is a Fellow at the Internet Law & Policy Foundry and a Teaching Assistant at Haas School of Business.
2022 Winners
Congratulations to Adira Levine’s First Place Essay: Foreseeable Harm at Five Years: Implications for Consumer Protection.
Adira Levine is a third-year student at Harvard Law School, where her activities include serving as an editor-in-chief of the Harvard National Security Journal. Prior to law school, Adira worked as a federal government consultant in Washington, D.C. She spent this past summer as a Summer Associate at Covington & Burling. Adira holds a master’s in public policy degree from the University of Cambridge and received her undergraduate degree from Yale College.
Travis Murphy is a 2L at the University of Denver Sturm College of Law, where he serves as a staff editor for the Denver Law Review. Travis spent his 1L summer as an intern in the Chambers of the Honorable Justice Maria E. Berkenkotter in the Colorado Supreme Court and is currently in the Securities and Exchange Commission’s Student Honors Program with the Division of Enforcement. Upon completing his second year, Travis will join Davis Graham & Stubbs as a summer associate. Prior to law school, he worked as a fixed income trader specializing in European government debt and later applied his knowledge of algorithmic trading and auction markets to advertising technology.
Victoria Wang is a Berkeley Law student and will graduate in 2023. She is a member of the Berkeley Law Womxn of Color Collective and an associate editor on the California Law Review. Before law school, she was a grant writer for a youth nonprofit for two years. She became interested in consumer protection law after taking a class with Professor Ted Mermin. She is currently a summer associate in San Francisco working on complex civil litigation.