“The Most Important, Yet Overlooked, Issue in American Criminal Law”
THE CRIMINAL LAWYER’S $1000 ESSAY CONTEST
Young prosecutors and public defenders:
Get some recognition, and maybe a bit of cash.
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A little while back, we argued that paying prosecutors more isn’t going to result in better ADAs. Pay isn’t what attracts the good ones. Likewise, we’ve long maintained that pay is not a huge factor in the quality of public defenders.
However, having been there and done that ourselves, we know very well that the pay can be miserably low. When we started at the Manhattan DA’s office in 1997, our starting salary was about 1/3 of what we’d have made had we gone with a firm. Even after we scored a tiny rent-stabilized apartment, we were still living paycheck-to-paycheck for many years. We could have gone with a firm — top student from a top school, law review editor, serious real-life experience, we weren’t exactly hurting for opportunities — but we went with what we loved. In the tradeoff between money and job satisfaction, there was no contest. So to all of you who are going through the same thing now, we get it. We really do.
After writing that blog piece, we started asking ourselves: Why not give an opportunity to some of the young prosecutors and public defenders out there who are really bright and talented, but still working for peanuts, to get some recognition and maybe a bit of cash? Maybe do something with this blog, which (to our constant amazement) is fairly widely read. It started out as an idle thought, but now it’s become a real desire to do something tangible.
So now we’re announcing The Criminal Lawyer’s first essay contest. It’s open only to young prosecutors and public defenders, within their first five years out of law school. Write an article worthy of publication, no more than 2,500 words, on “The Most Important, Yet Overlooked, Issue in American Criminal Law.”
The top 10 finalists will have their pieces published here, with a short bio about each author. That’s a bit of nationwide recognition, something nifty for the old résumé.
A grand prize winner will be chosen from the finalists by general acclaim. The grand prize winner will get $1,000.
It’s not like winning the lottery, but it ain’t chump change either. Maybe it helps pay the rent, or you can skip the ramen for a month, or you can pay down some debt. For a young ADA or PD, that’s nothing to sneeze at.
Entries are due by August 27, 2010. Read the official rules below for more information and entry instructions.
Good luck!
(Tinyurl for this contest page: http://tinyurl.com/34zhds5)
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OFFICIAL RULES
1) The contest is open only to individuals who are:
a) A licensed attorney in good standing;
b) At least 21 years of age;
c) Recently graduated from law school, with a graduation date after January 1, 2005;
d) Employed full-time as a prosecutor or public defender within the United States; and
e) Employed full-time by a government agency or not-for-profit organization.
2) To enter, send the following items by email (PDF entries preferred) to neb@quadrinoschwartz.com with the subject heading “Essay Contest”:
a) Your essay of no more than 2,500 words on “The Most Important, Yet Overlooked, Issue in American Criminal Law;”
b) Your name;
c) Some proof of employment, bar admission, and date of graduation from law school; and
d) Your full mailing address, telephone number and e-mail address.
3) Limit of one entry per person.
4) ALL ENTRIES MUST BE RECEIVED BY 11:59 p.m. on August 27, 2010.
5) In the interests of fairness to all entrants, no correspondence can be answered.
6) The contest sponsors will not be responsible for any lost, late, forged, mass-reproduced or mass-transmitted, misdirected, mutilated, incomplete or illegible mail or entries, and all such entries are void. The contest sponsors will not be responsible for any malfunctions, failures, errors or difficulties of any kind with respect to the transmission, receipt or storage of entries beyond the reasonable control of the contest sponsors, which may cause the contest to be disrupted or corrupted.
7) By entering, you warrant that your submission is original and does not infringe the rights of any third party.
8) By entering, you agree that your submission will become the property of Quadrino Schwartz and will not be returned. You agree that, should your essay be selected as a semifinalist or grand prize winner, Quadrino Schwartz and anyone the firm may authorize may without compensation to you publish, display and otherwise use your entry, name, biographical information and statements in any writing concerning the contest.
9) Ten semifinalists will be selected, and one grand prize winner will be selected from the semifinalists.
10) The ten semifinalists will be chosen by Nathaniel Burney in his sole discretion, on the basis of talent, originality, writing ability, legal and policy acumen, style and creativity. This decision is final.
11) The ten semifinalists will be announced on September 30, 2010, and will have their essays published on the blog “The Criminal Lawyer,” at TheCriminalLawyer.org.
12) The grand prize winner shall be chosen by the readers of The Criminal Lawyer, who will vote from among the semifinalists. The semifinalist who receives the greatest number of votes by 11:59 p.m. on October 8, 2010, shall be awarded the grand prize. Given the anonymity of the internet, it is impossible to ensure that individuals do not vote more than once, and so no such restriction can be imposed.
13) The winner of the grand prize shall receive an award of one thousand dollars ($1,000). Any taxes are the winner’s responsibility. The grand prize winner may be notified by phone or email.
14) For a list of the winner and semi-finalists, send a self-addressed stamped envelope to Quadrino Schwartz, Attn. Essay Contest, 666 Old Country Road Floor 9, Garden City, New York 11530.
15) No purchase necessary. Void where prohibited by law. All federal, state and local laws and regulations apply.
16) Employees and agents of Quadrino Schwartz, and members of their immediate families and households, are not eligible.
Tags: essay contest, prosecutors, public defenders
Well, folks, the entries are in, and we’re going to have to call this one a nullity.
Of all the entries we got — and yes, we did get entries — a grand total of zero were submitted by lawyers employed full-time by a government or not-for-profit, as either a prosecutor or public defender. The majority were actually from non-lawyers, which was to be expected, given the nature of the internet. But one would have thought the attorney entrants would have been more likely to read and comply with the rules. Employees of large law firms, for example, probably should have realized that they didn’t qualify.
We do have reason to believe that several prosecutors were unable to enter due to office constraints prohibiting them from doing so. And we suspect that the average public defender didn’t have a whole lot of spare time in which to write something. But we also have to fault ourselves for not doing a better job of publicizing the contest. We’re new at this sort of thing, but we’ll probably do better next time.
No qualifying entries means no prize this year. But we’re not disheartened. We’ll try this again next year, and hope the quality of entries improves.