Law student wins prestigious national writing award
by Janet Harvey Clark, MSU-DCLMay 12, 2005 - A third-year MSU College of Law student is among the 2005 law school winners of the prestigious 2005 Burton Awards for Legal Achievement.
Joseph J. Gavin, who will graduate from MSU College of Law on May 15 received the Burton Award in recognition of his outstanding legal writing.
MSU Law dean Terence L. Blackburn nominated Gavin’s Michigan State Law Review article, “The Subtle Birth of Activism: the Federal Rules of Appellate Procedure,” for the award.
“The entire law college is extremely proud of Mr. Gavin and his accomplishment,” said Blackburn said “His work was recognized in the same league with articles written by students from Columbia University School of Law, Duke University School of Law, Stanford University Law School, Georgetown University Law Center and the University of Michigan Law School.”
The Burton Awards for Legal Achievement is a unique national awards program dedicated to rewarding effective legal writing. The program honors law school students and partners in law firms who use plain, clear and concise language in their legal writing while avoiding archaic, stilted legalese. LexisNexis® is the prime sponsor of the program, which is run in association with the Library of Congress Law Library.
MSU law professor Adam Mossoff, a faculty adviser to the Law Review, recommended Gavin’s article for nomination. “His article is one of the best examples of student writing that I have ever read,” Mossoff said. “He exhibited a clear, professional writing style that is on par with most articles written by full-time law professors.”
The awards program is named for William C. Burton, a partner in the international law firm of D’Amato & Lynch. He also is a former New York State assistant attorney general and the author of the authoritative reference, Burton’s Legal Thesaurus. Burton is an outspoken advocate of plain language and modernized legal writing.
In his letter to the dean announcing Gavin’s award, Burton stated, “Participants from every geographic region of the nation competed in record numbers. Only 15 award winners were selected out of the mass of applications received. It is, therefore, a great tribute that your student won.”
Gavin will receive his award at a June 6 banquet to be held in the Great Hall of the Library of Congress in Washington, D.C. Chris Matthews, host of “Hardball with Chris Matthews” and frequent commentator of “NBC’s Today Show,” will be the guest speaker at the event.