Linda Berger Lifetime Achievement Award for Excellence in Legal Writing Scholarship

Expired

The Linda Berger Award for Excellence in Legal Writing Scholarship is ALWD’s highest award recognizing scholarship in the field of legal writing.  ALWD created this award in 2016 to recognize the profound impact of Linda Berger on the discipline of legal writing.  From her prolific body of influential articles to her contributions as the founding editor-in-chief of ALWD’s peer edited journal, Professor Berger has been a leader in establishing legal writing scholarship.  Moreover, she has been generous in her efforts to support other scholars in the field, leading presentations and workshops about legal writing scholarship, and helping new scholars find their voice.

A. Criteria

The Berger award recognizes lifetime dedication to and advancement of legal writing scholarship.  It celebrates those who have written influential articles, books, or essays, and otherwise had a major impact on scholarship, perhaps through making presentations, mentoring, serving on editorial boards of various publications, sponsoring scholarship workshops, etc.

Members of the ALWD Board of Directors, the Selection Committee, and the Editorial Board of Legal Communication and Rhetoric: JALWD are not eligible until two years after their terms ends.

B. Selection Committee

The ALWD President serving in years when an ALWD biennial conference will be held will appoint a Selection Committee.  The committee should include (1) the ALWD President, (2) at least one past recipient of the Berger Award, (3) one member of the JALWD board (with a focus on scholarship, not the editorial process), and (4) two other ALWD members.

1. Nominations

Nomination materials should support as fully as possible the listed criteria as well as any other information the nominating person believes would help the Committee in its selection process.  Most nominations are expected to be between one and three pages in length (single spaced).  Multiple nominations or multiple signatories are not necessary.  The nomination should attach a list of the candidate’s publications and, if possible, a copy of the candidate’s CV.

2. Presentation

The award will be presented at the biennial ALWD Conference.