Miscellaneous

Awards Honor Best in Legal Writing

By Robert Ambrogi

Winners have been announced of the 2010 Burton Awards for legal writing. Given annually by The Burton Foundation in conjunction with the Library of Congress, the awards honor lawyers and law students “who use plain, clear and concise language and avoid archaic, stilted legalese.”

Unfortunately, lawyers qualify for the awards only if they are a partner in one of the nation’s 1,000-largest law firms or general counsel of a corporation with gross revenues above $1 billion. That rules out a lot of good writing, but the foundation says it must set limits to conform to its available resources and numbers of judges.

The 2010 awards were given in four categories:

• Legends in the Law, given to an outstanding corporate GC.
• Legal Writing – Law Firm, given to law firm partners for articles on any legal topic.
• Legal Writing – Law Student, for any article in any publication printed at a law school.
• Association of Legal Administrators Awards, for the best law firm profile, newsletter, publication, advertisement and compendium.

The awards site has the full list of 2010 winners. They will be honored at a June 14 event at the Library of Congress.

Full post as published by Lawsites on May 21, 2010 (boomark / email).