The purpose of the Howard C. Schwab Memorial Essay Contest is to create greater interest in the field of family law among all law students, and particularly the Law Student Division of the American Bar Association.
This annual contest, conducted by the ABA Section of Family Law, was established by the Toledo Bar Association and the Ohio Bar Foundation as a memorial to Howard C. Schwab, a Past President of the Toledo Bar Association and Past Chairman of the Family Law Committee of the Ohio Bar Association. He was Chairman-Elect of the Section of Family Law at the time of his death on February 24, 1969. In 1985, the Section of Family Law assumed full responsibility for sponsoring this contest.
Each year, the Section of Family Law's Schwab Essay Contest Committee judges eligible essays written by law students to determine first, second, and third-place winners, who are awarded monetary prizes, as well as publication of the winning entries on the Section’s website and possible inclusion in a future issue of the Section’s scholarly journal, the Family Law Quarterly.