Task Force on Outreach to Law Students

Task Force on Outreach to Law Students

Message From The Co-Chairs, Task Force On Outreach

Over the past few years, much has changed in the legal world. Most significantly, the legal job market has contracted due to financial difficulties that have spread throughout the world. These changes have led many law students to ask "what can I do to stand out" when I enter the workforce?

For many law students, joining the Tort Trial & Insurance Practice Section (TIPS) of the American Bar Association (ABA) has given them the tools and experience needed to stand out. TIPS, with 30,000-members and over 30 committees, provides countless opportunities for law students to interact with a TIPS community that includes the legal profession's most accomplished attorneys. Additionally, TIPS has instituted a number of programs focused on the development of law students. These programs include: (1) Leadership opportunities to students, including a student vice-chair position on every substantive committee; (2) Scholarships to help fund law students? attendance at TIPS meetings; (3) A mentoring program that connects TIPS student leaders with attorneys who practice law in the student's area of interest; (4) The TIPSTER newsletter with articles targeting issues of interest to law students, and (5) Several student writing competitions, including the annual TIPS-wide Law Student Writing Competition that awards cash to the top two papers and paid air and hotel accommodations to the ABA Annual Meeting to the first place winner

Finally, membership in the Tort Trial & Insurance Practice Section is FREE to law students who are members of the ABA. Fill out the online application and join TIPS today. We look forward to having you as a member!

Best Regards,

Joan Schaffner
Christopher Shelton

Mission Statement

The Task Force on Outreach to Law Students is established to develop ways for TIPS to increase and enhance law student membership and involve law student members in TIPS leadership.

TIPS Writing Competition

The Tort Trial & Insurance Practice Section (TIPS) has established an annual Law Student Writing Competition with $1,500 cash, plus paid air and hotel accommodations to the ABA Annual Meeting awarded to the first place winner and $500 cash awarded to the second place winner. View the Flyer

Read about this year's winners and their winning papers here. The goal of the competition is to encourage and reward law student writings on legal subjects within the scope of the Section and general and current interest. See the Complete Rules

Read about this year's winners and their winning papers

1st Prize
The Preemption of Extra-Contractual State-Law Claims by the National Flood Insurance Act
Christopher L. Martin, Jr.
University of California, Berkeley, School of Law (Boalt Hall)

2nd Prize
Dead on Arrival: The Health Insurance Industry's Bleak Prognosis due to Unconstitutional Ratemaking in the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act
Rebecca J. Kopps
Northern Illinois University - College of Law

3rd Prize
Tweaking Unconscionability as an Alternative to the "'Fair Contracts' Approval Mechanism"
Daniel J. Cohn
Florida Coastal School of Law