UniCourt Kicks Off Nationwide Legal Research & Writing Competition

Improving access to the law is a core component of UniCourt’s mission to make legal data more accessible and useful for all. 

In addition to making legal data more easily accessible and meaningfully useful through our Legal Data as a Service offerings via our APIs and online app, UniCourt has dedicated considerable resources to publishing millions of court records online for free and producing easy to read, detailed case summaries of trending litigation and cases from critical practice areas through our UniCourt Legal News. 

To carry forward our mission of improving access to the law, UniCourt is kicking off our first ever Legal Research & Writing Competition (LRW Competition), seeking submissions of informative case summaries from law students across the United States to be published online and made publicly available for all to read.

Enter to win UniCourt’s Legal Research & Writing Competition

Who is invited to participate in UniCourt’s LRW Competition?

In order to participate in the LRW Competition, entrants must be:

1. A current law student at an ABA accredited law school,
2. At least 21 years old, and 
3. A U.S. citizen or legal permanent resident.

We welcome submissions from law students across the country, whether you are a 1L, 2L, or 3L. 

If you’re interested in improving access to the law, you love legal research and writing, and want to get your name out there on a public piece of legal content that you can add to your professional writing portfolio, this is the competition for you. 

What are the prizes for winning UniCourt’s LRW Competition?

Through publishing millions of court records online and providing free case summary content on trending state and federal litigation in the news, UniCourt has built an impressive web traffic of anywhere between 2-3 million website views per month. 

Winners of the LRW Competition will get their case summary submissions published on UniCourt’s homepage in our trending news section, as well as in UniCourt’s Legal News page, on UniCourt’s blog, and in our monthly newsletter, The LegalTech Brief. 

Winners will also be interviewed by UniCourt, and have their interview published on our blog and shared in The LegalTech Brief. 

Lastly, winners will also be considered for a paid internship within UniCourt’s growing Legal News team. 

How can I enter UniCourt’s LRW Competition?

Law students can enter the LRW Competition by submitting an original summary of the complaint of a federal U.S. District Court case by February 19, 2023, 11:59 pm Pacific Time using the following submission form: https://unicourt.com/legal-writing-competition

Entrants must summarize a complaint within one of the following five practices areas:

1. Antitrust, 
2. Privacy & Cybersecurity,
3. Intellectual Property,
4. Securities & White Collar Defense, or 
5. Cryptocurrency & Blockchain.

Entrants are also welcome to make multiple submissions, but may only make one submission per practice area.

While we encourage law students to summarize the complaint of any U.S. District Court case falling within one of the five listed practice areas, we have also provided the following sample case complaints:

1. Antitrust
   1. Mickelson et al v. PGA Tour, Inc.
   2. Smart et al v. National Collegiate Athletic Association
2. Privacy & Cybersecurity
   1. Austin Recht et al v. TikTok Inc. et al
   2. Willis et al v. Meta Platforms, Inc.
3. Intellectual Property
   1. ModernaTX, Inc. et al v. Pfizer Inc. et al
   2. Netflix Worldwide Entertainment, LLC et al. v. Barlow et al.
4. Securities & White Collar Defense
   1. Securities and Exchange Commission v. Bankman-Fried
   2. USA v. Holmes et al.
5. Cryptocurrency & Blockchain
   1. Securities and Exchange Commission v. Ripple Labs Inc. et al.
   2. Johnson v. Musk et al

To make this competition easy and fun to enter, we have also kept the submission requirements minimal:

1. Submissions may not exceed 1000 words, 
2. Submissions should follow the UniCourt Legal News style guidelines, and include an (1) introductory paragraph with the names of the parties, attorneys, law firms, and judges involved, (2) body paragraphs summarizing the allegations and facts, (3) the specific claims and connected statutes, and (4) the prayer for relief, 
3. No formal bluebooking is required, and 
4. No in-line citations or footnotes should be included.

How is the LRW Competition being judged?

Entries for the LRW Competition will be judged by the UniCourt Legal News team, including the Editor-In-Chief, Jeff Cox, and the Associate Editor, Kess Hendrix. 

Entries will be judged based on the following criteria: clarity of the case summary, significance of the case, manner in which the topic is treated, organization, quality of analysis, quality of research, authority, and quality of grammar, syntax, and form. 

Once the judging has been completed, winners will be notified by email by March 10, 2023, 11:59 pm Pacific Time at the latest.

Want to learn more about the LRW Competition?

Have burning questions about UniCourt’s Legal Research & Writing Competition? Want to learn more about UniCourt’s Legal News content and our mission to improve access to the law?

Contact us at legalnews@unicourt.com to learn more.

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