Greetings, TLS readers!
Last year's TLS Content Competition was an immense success, generating a great deal of high-quality content for Top Law Schools while rewarding many talented TLS readers with ca$h prizes. As Ken said last summer:
"To assist TLS reach its true potential I want to utilize the genius of our members. Since it is summer and I anticipate many of you may have some spare time, I wanted to create a contest to motivate TLS members to write new content for TLS. My hope is that the strongest motivation will be to improve the TLS community, but I also want to incentivize everyone with over $3,000 in contest money."
I'm pleased to announce that, with summer rolling around once again, it's time to launch the 2nd edition of the TLS Content Competition!
For those who participated in 2009, you'll notice that the rules are essentially the same as last year. However, seeing as how there are lots of new readers in 2010, we'll go over the guidelines for the competition again.
Content
"Your submission can be anything you would like it to be and the most likely topic is something that you feel will be a good addition to TLS. This could be a subject we already have written about but not as in-depth as you feel it should be or running with an entirely new topic. Please use your creative juices to add to TLS. Those who win prizes would contribute their content to TLS, which hopefully is fine." -- Ken
While the majority of submissions will be in text/article format, feel free to experiment with images, charts, or even video.
Prizes
Once again, over $3000 in cash will be awarded to the contest winners. The money will be spread around to many users, with the top entries winning $500, the runners-up receiving $250 and $150, and well over a dozen consolation prizes of $25-$50 being awarded as well. Ken's goal is to see that most people who put significant time and effort into the competition will receive some amount of compensation.
Ken will ultimately judge the winners and disburse the prize money; however, his opinion will be significantly informed by TLS readers' opinions and reactions to the posted content.
Deadline
The final deadline for the TLS content competition is
Submission
Once the final draft of your entry has been completed, post your submission by making a thread in the TLS Content Competition forum.
Ideas
To help jump-start the thought process, here are a few suggestions based on subjects that have yet to be covered on TLS. However, keep in mind that the topic is entirely of your selection...this is just a small handful of ideas!
Cohesive LSAT Study Guides - While Pithypike is working on turning his legendary guide into an article for TLS, the site could still benefit from more high-quality LSAT study material. Seeing as how there is more than one path to LSAT success, Top Law Schools could benefit from many different study guides advocating various approaches to LSAT domination.
0L Summer Prep Guide - How should 0L's prepare themselves for the rigors of law school? E&E's? Margaritas? LEEWS? A trip to Amsterdam? Las Vegas? Watch "Paper Chase"? Run a marathon? De-activate TLS account? Re-activate TLS account? All of the above? None of the above? Successful (or perhaps not-so-successful) law students can weigh in on what they did (or wish they hadn't done) during their 0L summer in order to get body, mind, and soul properly lubricated for the 1L year.
Profiles on Top Law Firms - These would be similar to the TLS profiles on law schools, with the goal being to provide insight into what it is like to work at each firm (culture, pay, hours worked, what grades and school one needs to be hired, areas of specialty, etc.)
An Introduction to Clerkships - Lots of law students pursue clerkships, but many 0L's understand little about this process. What is a clerkship? What types of clerkships are there? How hard is it to get one? How/when are clerkships applied for? What do clerks get paid? What are the benefits to clerking? What's the work/experience like?
An Intro to OCI - An article that describes the OCI process and perhaps explores how the process works at several different law schools (do the students get to choose the firms as at most top law schools or can the firms determine who they want to interview by selecting amongst resumes, setting GPA requirements, etc.) and also how many law firms come to each law school? Perhaps touch on the history/culture of OCI and the school/firm relationship and the fact that OCI prospects have taken such a beating in the last few years.
Dissecting The Law Firm Rankings - Explore the history, methodology, purpose, and impact of the Vault rankings, NLJ250, etc.
A Summary of Law School - An article aimed at pre-law or entering law students providing an overview of the entire 3-year process such as: 1) a description of the first year of law school (required classes such as Torts, Civil Procedure and what topics they cover), 2) the hard task of looking for a summer job in your first summer, 3) 2nd year classes (can either be electives but several students will take classes that prepare them for the bar such as evidence, constitutional law, etc.), 4) on-campus interviews, 5) the summer associate job where you work for the firm you hope to get employed by, 6) the potentially relaxing 3rd year if you already have your offer from a firm in hand, 7) intensive bar review, and
bar vacation (travel for 3-8 weeks as your last hurrah before the golden handcuffs).Law School Regional Markets - This idea could spawn over ten separate articles/submissions of significant length. These articles could be written for TLS readers who are interested in working in a specific market; while the articles shouldn't be limited to only "regional" schools (i.e. the California article would still cover Stanford, for example), they should definitely cater to people interested in working in a single region. Which law schools are located within a given region? Which are the strongest? For those intent on working in a smaller market, which schools might be the most affordable/practical? Which schools are most resident-friendly? Where does each school place its graduates, and what are its specialties? A cohesive, in-depth exploration of the legal markets in these regions could be very useful to TLS readers.
-- California
-- New York (already exists on TLS but could use expansion/elaboration/updating)
-- Florida
-- "Mid Atlantic"
-- Texas
-- Northeast/New England
-- Southeast
-- Midwest
-- Mountain west/Southwest
-- Northwest
-- etc...
And finally, if any TLS users have ideas for articles and topics they would like to see explored on TLS, feel free to make suggestions in this thread.
Thanks for reading and good luck to all participants!
