Villanova Law Student Wins PA Bar Association’s 2017 Intellectual Property Writing Competition

A testament to Villanova’s strong legal writing programming and its outstanding students, Eliese Herzl-Betz ’17 earned first place in the Pennsylvania Bar Association’s 2017 Honorable Intellectual Property Law Section writing contest for her paper, “Give Me the Beat Boys, and Free My Copyrighted Creativity: An Examination of Music Copyright Infringement Through the Lens of the Ninth Circuit’s ‘Blurred Lines’ Opinion.” Chandel Boozer ’18 took second place for her article “Amateurism and the Right of Publicity: How O’Bannon v. NCAA Strikes an Imbalance between Amateurism and Student-Athletes’ Right of Publicity regarding use of their name, image, and likeness.”

The contest, established in 2004, seeks to provide an opportunity for second and third-year law students to “express in writing their insight and knowledge in the areas of patents, copyrights, trademarks, trade secrets or trade dress.” The section also established a cash award for the winners. The competition is open to all second and third-year law students enrolled in law schools in Pennsylvania. The winner’s original creation is selected by judges based on content, quality and relevancy.

“My Villanova Law education prepared me for the PA Bar IP Writing Competition in several ways. The Duane Morris LLP Legal Writing Program is excellent at preparing students for practice and teaching us how to write legal documents well,” said Herzl-Betz. “In law school, I had the opportunity to work for great mentors as a legal research assistant and a Legal Writing Teaching Assistant. I also externed for judges in Superior and Federal Court in Delaware. All of these experiences helped me to hone my legal research and writing skills.”

Since 2013, Villanova Law has had three first place winners, four second place finishers, and two honorable mentions at the competition.

The curriculum at Villanova University School of Law includes five semesters of writing instruction—providing students with a solid foundation in legal writing, analysis and research that prepares them to meet the intense demands of the legal industry.