Beckley Student Writing Competition is open for students who are interested in Securities Arbitration and Securities Law sponsored by The PIABA Foundation. The purposes of the competition are to promote greater interest and understanding in the areas of securities arbitration and securities law and to encourage excellent legal writing skills in law students.
Established in 1990, PIABA is an educational and networking organization for securities arbitration attorneys who represent the public investor in securities disputes. Its mission is to advocate for equal access to justice for investors in all forums. Currently, there are members from 44 states, Puerto Rico and Japan.
Table of Contents
Who May Be Eligible?
Eligibility and Selection Criteria
- The competition is open to all students who attend a law school in the United States.
- Full-time students who are not law students but who write law-related papers as part of a course at an American law school are also eligible.
- Employees of PIABA (except for students working less than 20 hours per week) are not eligible to enter the competition.
How to Apply
- To be eligible students must submit the submission may address any aspect of Securities law; Securities arbitration; The Federal Arbitration Act, Title 9, US Code, Section 1-14; or FINRA Code of Arbitration, effective April 16, 2007, and any changes or proposed changes to that Code.
- The writing can be based in theory or practice, but should ultimately advocate a position on the topic area chosen.
- The contestant’s name and other identifying markings such as school name are not to be on any copy of the submitted entry.
- Format:
The text of a submission must be double-spaced, with twelve-point font and
one-inch margins.
- Any Question(s) Presented section, the Statement of the Facts / Statement of the Law section, the Argument section, and/or the Conclusion together are a minimum of 15 pages and a maximum of 30 pages.
- If the submission covers both a topic among those listed above and a topic not listed above, only the topic listed above will be evaluated.
- Submissions will not be penalized for arguing a position that would limit investor rights rather than expand them.
Benefit: Public Investors Advocate Bar Association is proud to offer first, second and third prizes of all their students who attend a law school in the United States.
- First Prize is $1000,
- Second Prize is $750, and
- Third Prize is $500.
Application Deadline: The submission is accepted via the online submission portal until 5 pm eastern on September 18, 2020.
