Finest Law Firm Writers Selected For 2018

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

February 26, 2018

New York, New York: The finest law firm writers of 2018 have been announced by the Burton Awards, a non-profit program, which is run in association with the Library of Congress, presented by lead sponsor Law360, and co-sponsored by the American Bar Association. The winners, who will be presented the “Law360 Distinguished Legal Writing Awards” on May 21, 2018, were chosen from the nominations submitted by the nation’s top 1,000 largest law firms.  William Burton, Founder and Chair of the awards program, said “The winners are outstanding, highly skilled, and effective writers, and the competition was acutely keen. The Law360 writing award winners have now attained a new and even higher standard of excellence.”

The Academic Board, which reviewed articles published within the past year, was led by Virginia Wise, Chair, formerly of Harvard Law School; Jeanne Merino, Stanford Law School; Lindsay Saffouri, UC Berkeley School of Law, William C. Burton, author and founder of the event; Judge Edward Forstenzer, Superior Court of California (retired); and William Ryan, member of the Department of Homeland Security and former Chair of the White House Plain Language Committee.

The award ceremony will be celebrating its nineteenth anniversary at the Library of Congress.  The program will be followed by a reception, dinner, gala and a performance by Broadway stars Megan Hilty and Stephanie J. Block from the hit musical Wicked.

The honorary and distinguished Board of Directors of the Burton Awards program includes: Chief Judge Richard Posner, 7th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals (retired) ; U.S. Senator John Cornyn; U.S. Senator Robert P. Casey, Jr.; U.S. Senator Mike Crapo; U.S. Senator Michael F. Bennet; Supreme Court Justice Carol Corrigan of California; Yabo Lin, Partner, Sidley Austin LLP; Jane Sullivan Roberts, Partner, Major, Lindsey & Africa; Lisa Rickard,  President, U.S. Chamber Institute for Legal Reform; Elissa Lichtenstein, Director, Public Services Division, American Bar Association; Thomas L. Sager, Partner, Ballard Spahr LLP; Les Parrette, Senior Vice President, General Counsel and Compliance Officer, Novelis Inc.; Linda Klein, Immediate Past President of the ABA James M. Rishwain, Jr., Chairman Emeritus, Pillsbury Winthrop LLP; Betty Whelchel, Head of Public Policy & Regulatory Affairs, BNP Paribas SA; Stephen R. Mysliwiec, Partner, DLA Piper LLP (US); and Leslie T. Thornton, Senior Vice President, General Counsel & Corporate Secretary, WGL Holdings, Inc. and Washington Gas.

Law360, a LexisNexis company, serves as the lead sponsor of the Burton Awards and the writing awards bear its name.

“Clear, compelling writing is an essential tool for all lawyers,” Law360 General Manager Scott Roberts said. “Law360 is proud to be associated with these awards, which recognize the best of the best writers in the legal profession. We salute all of the winners and commend them on demonstrating these talents and sustaining such high standards of written excellence.”

The 2018 Law Firm winners:

Law Firm	Author(s)	Article Title
Alston & Bird LLP	Robert Long Nanci Weissgold	D&O Insurance Coverage Tips for Financial Institutions
Armstrong Teasdale	Brian Kaveney Brad Bakker Erika Schenk	How Employers Can Mitigate Insider Threats
Baker McKenzie	Grant Hanessian Kabir Duggal	The Final 2015 Indian Model BIT: Is This the Change the World Wishes to See?
Boies Schiller Flexner LLP	Michael J. Gottlieb	Best Military Intelligence Foreign Policy Political Advice: The Problem With National Security Presidential Memorandum 2
Butler Snow LLP	Chad R. Hutchinson Joshua A. Hill	Epidemiology and the NFL Collide
Cravath, Swaine & Moore LLP	David J. Kappos	Open Source Software and Standards Development Organizations: Symbiotic Functions in the Innovation Equation
Crowell & Moring	Paul Rosen Carlton Greene	Ransomware: What Every Corporate Executive Needs to Know
Dechert LLP	Alec Burnside	Bob Dylan and consumer welfare
DLA Piper LLP (US)	James Czaban	Setting the Stage- A Brief History of FDA Regulation of Precision Medicine, and a Glimpse a to it’s Possible Future
Fisher Phillips	Richard R. Meneghello Katherine P. Sandberg	The Die Hard Survival Guide to This Year’s Office Holiday Party
Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer	Peter D. Lyons Mary Lehner Jennifer Mellott Elise Nelson	Breaking Up Is Hard To Do (But Planning For It Can Be Even Harder)
Fried, Frank, Harris, Shriver & Jacobson LLP	Gail Weinstein Philip Richter Steven Epstein	The Dramatic Transformation of M&A Law Since 2014
Goldberg Segalla	Stewart Milch	Why You Should Argue Your Appeal
Hooper Lundy & Bookman	Paul Smith Andrea Frey	Modernizing the Common Rule: Federal Agencies Revise Rule on  the Protection of Human Subjects
Jenner & Block	Reid Schar Wade Thomson Emily McWilliams	New Horizons and High Stakes:  Money Laundering through Skill-Based Gaming
Kelley Drye & Warren LLP	Paul Rosenthal Melissa Brewer	EU Proposal for New Antidumping Methodology Pending as China Requests WTO Consultations With EU, U.S. After Protocol Provision Expires
Morgan, Lewis & Bockius LLP	Alexander L. Reid Sandra Swirski	Tax Reform May Harbor Some Surprises for Non-Profit Boards
Morvillo Abramowitz Grand Iason & Anello P.C.	Robert J. Anello Richard F. Albert	Executing Search Warrants in the Digital Age: ‘United States v. Wey’
Perkins Coie LLP	T. Markus Funk Laura Cramer-Babycz	Understanding ‘Corporate Sentencing’  Or How to Turn an Ounce of Preventative Compliance Into a Pound of Sentencing Cure
Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman LLP	Elina Teplinsky Vincent Zabielski	Whatever Happened to the Nuclear Renaissance?
Ropes & Gray	Eva Carman Daniel O’Connor Aaron Katz	10th Circuit ruling on SEC’s  use of administrative law judges creates circuit split
Schnader Harrison Segal & Lewis	Laurel Brandstetter	What Mueller’s Empaneling of a Grand Jury Might Mean
Seyfarth Shaw	Gregory A. Markel Heather E. Murray	Internal Investigations: Best Practices for Special Committees
Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom LLP	Jon A. Hlafter Patrick J. Lewis Rajvi Patel	Navigating the Challenges of Chinese Acquisitions of US Insurers
Snell & Wilmer	Joshua Schneiderman Anastasia Atkins	Haze Surrounding California Marijuana Regulations is Starting to Clear
Squire Patton Boggs	Sarah Rathke	A BigLaw Ladies Guide To Becoming A 1st-Chair Trial Lawyer
Stroock & Stroock & Lavan LLP	Laura Besvinick	What Lawyers Can Learn from Poker Players
Sullivan & Cromwell LLP	Matthew A. Schwartz Corey Omer	The Constitutionality of State Cybersecurity Regulations
Weil, Gotshal & Manges LLP	Ellen Odoner Stephen Radin Lyuba Goltser Andrew Blumberg	Fiduciary Duties of Corporate Directors in Uncertain Times
White & Case LLP	Kevin Petrasic Benjamin Saul George Paul Steven Chabinsky	Managing AI Risk in Financial Services
WilmerHale	David L. Cavanaugh Joshua L. Stern Kevin M. Yurkerwich	Practice Tips for Presenting and Responding to Motivation to Combine Arguments in IPR Proceedings

 

THE BURTON AWARDS

The Burton Awards, established in 1999, are funded by the Burton Foundation, a non-profit, academic effort devoted to recognizing and rewarding excellence in the legal profession. The Burton Awards were established to honor the finest accomplishments in law, including writing, reform, public service and interest, regulatory innovation, and lifetime achievements in the profession.

 

LAW360

Law360, a LexisNexis company, is a trusted provider of breaking legal news and in-depth analysis, with up-to-the-minute, comprehensive coverage of litigation, regulation and enforcement, legislation, administrative proceedings, executive actions, corporate deals, legal industry trends, and more. With a unique blend of cutting-edge technology and journalistic expertise, Law360 delivers the intelligence legal and business professionals at top law firms, Fortune 1000 companies, key government agencies, and many other organizations need to remain experts, mitigate risk, and beat the competition.

 

LEXISNEXIS^® LEGAL & PROFESSIONAL

LexisNexis Legal & Professional is a leading global provider of content and technology solutions that enable professionals in legal, corporate, tax, government, academic and non-profit organizations to make informed decisions and achieve better business outcomes. As a digital pioneer, the company was the first to bring legal and business information online with its Lexis^® and Nexis^® services. Today, LexisNexis Legal & Professional harnesses leading-edge technology and world-class content to help professionals work in faster, easier and more effective ways. Through close collaboration with its customers, the company ensures organizations can leverage its solutions to reduce risk, improve productivity, increase profitability and grow their business. LexisNexis Legal & Professional, which serves customers in more than 175 countries with 10,000 employees worldwide, is part of RELX Group, a world-leading provider of information and analytics for professional and business customers across industries.

 

LIBRARY OF CONGRESS

This prominent institution is one of the most celebrated and distinguished libraries in the world. It was established on April 24, 1800, and since that time has grown to become one of the largest repositories in history. The Library of Congress functions as both a national library and as the research arm of the U.S. Congress. It contains more than 32 million catalogued books and more than 62 million manuscripts.

 

ABOUT THE CHAIRMAN, WILLIAM C. BURTON, ESQ.

The Founder and Chair of The Burton Awards for Legal Achievement is William C. Burton, Esq., a partner at the law firm of Sagat|Burton LLP. He is a former New York State Assistant Attorney General, a former New York State Assistant Special Prosecutor, and is the author of the first legal thesaurus ever written for the legal profession, entitled Burton’s Legal Thesaurus. The book is now in its 5^th edition and quickly approaching its 35^th anniversary. When the book was released, the Association of American Publishers recognized it as “one of the Most Innovative and Creative Projects of the year.” In 2011, Mr. Burton was presented the highest honor given by the second largest association of law professors in America, The Legal Writing Institute, for “significantly advancing the cause of legal writing in the profession of law.” More recently, he was awarded the “Blackstone Award” by the Friends of the Law Library of Congress, for “embodying and promoting the best ideals of the institution.” In 2017 The U.S. Chamber of Commerce Institute for Legal Reform Individual Achievement Award was presented to Mr. Burton for making the U.S. Justice System “fairer for all.”