Finest Law Firm Writers Selected by The Burton Awards Program
New York, New York: The finest law firm writers of 2025 have been selected by the Burton Awards, a national 501(c)(3) 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 and Sullivan & Cromwell LLP.
The authors who were chosen from twenty law firms will be presented the “Law360 Distinguished Legal Writing Awards” on May 19, 2025, at the Library of Congress. They 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 exceptional writers. They truly deserve the recognition they will be given.”
The Academic Board, which reviewed articles published within the past year, was led by Virginia Wise, Chair, formerly of Harvard Law School; Kristen K. Tiscione, Georgetown Law Center; Lindsay Sturges Saffouri, UC Berkeley School of Law; William C. Burton, Founder and Chair of the event; and William Ryan, Director of Communications, Library of Congress.
The awards program will be celebrating its Twenty-Sixth Anniversary at the Library of Congress. The awards ceremony, featuring former anchor of ABC’s Nightline, Ted Koppel as the Master of Ceremonies. The awards ceremony will be followed by a pre-dinner reception, gala, and performance by 16-time Grammy Award-winner David Foster and Broadway star, Katharine McPhee.
The following law firm authors are Law360 Distinguished Legal Writing Award Winners:
| LAW FIRM | AUTHOR(S) | ARTICLE TITLE |
| Axinn, Veltrop & Harkrider LLP | Daniel Oakes, Tiffany Rider and Lindsey Strang | Losing per se: Potential fallout from the U.S. Department of Justice’s no-poach enforcement |
| Baker & Hostetler LLP | Stefanie Ferrari and Lynn Sessions | Got Pixels? The Regulatory and Legal Implications of the Use of Third-Party Technologies on Health Care Websites |
| Bowman and Brooke LLP | Angela Angotti and Michelle Fields | Nutraceuticals and Social Media: FDA and FTC Like and Subscribe to the Next Big Trend in Litigation |
| Crowell & Moring LLP | Jacob Canter, Derick Dailey, Joanna Rosen Forster, and Matt Menezes | The State Law Landscape After Justices’ Social Media Ruling |
| Davis Polk & Wardwell LLP | David J. Penna | U.S. energy transmission activity offers hope to the ailing grid |
| Fennemore | David McCarville | Name, Image and Likeness (NIL) Compensation for Student Athletes |
| Fenwick | Fredrick Tsang, Antonia L. Sequeira, and Carl A. Morales | Emerging Legal Terrain: IP Risks from AI’s Role in Drug Discovery |
| Hooper, Lundy & Bookman, P.C. | Andrea Frey and Rachel Zacharias | HHS Finalizes Amendments to HIPAA Privacy Rule to Strengthen Privacy Protections for Reproductive Health Information Post-Dobbs |
| Hunton Andrews Kurth LLP | Elizabeth England, Eileen Henderson, Kurt G. Larkin, Tyler S. Laughinghouse, Reilly Moore, Christopher M. Pardo, Katherine Sandberg, and Susan F. Wiltsie | All Things Considered: Loper Bright and the NLRB, OSHA, Wages, and Non-Competes |
| Kilpatrick Townsend & Stockton | Theodore H. Davis, Jr. | Constitutional Avoidance and Standards of Proof in Trademark Infringement Litigation: A Comment on Post-Jack Daniel’s Applications of the Rogers Test For Liability |
| McGuireWoods LLP | J. Brent Justus and George E Rudebusch | All Dressed Up with No Place to Go? The FTC’s Ban on Non-Competes is Ready, but Legal Challenges Await |
| Morvillo Abramowitz Grand Iason & Anello PC | Brian A. Jacobs, Thomas A. McKay, and A. Dennis Dillon | How Recent Crypto Prosecutions May Crack the U.S. Code |
| Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison LLP | Andre Bouchard, Chelsea Darnell, Jaren Janghorbani, James Langston, Robert Kindler and Laura Turano | Paul Weiss Discusses Delaware Supreme Court Clarification of Tests for Advance Notice Bylaw Challenges |
| Robbins Geller Rudman & Dowd LLP | Lea Malani Bays and Stuart A. Davidson | The Missing Links: Why Hyperlinks Must Be Treated as Attachments in Electronic Discovery |
| Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom LLP
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Shay Dvoretzky, Parker Rider-Longmaid, Boris Bershteyn, Emily J. Kennedy and Steven Marcus
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Supreme Court’s Overruling of Chevron Deference to Administrative Agencies’ Interpretations of Statutes Will Invite More Challenges to Agency Decisions
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| Sullivan & Cromwell LLP
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Andrei Iancu and Cooper Godfrey
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The Bayh-Dole Act and the Debate Over “Reasonable Price” March-In Rights
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| Taft | Lyle A. Wallace | The Election is Coming: How will the 2024 Presidential Election Affect the M&A Market |
| White & Case LLP | Frank J. Schweitzer, Ian Saccomanno, and Naoto Nelson Saika | The Rise of Artificial Intelligence, Big Data, and the Next Generation of International Rules Governing Cross-Border Data Flows and Digital Trade — Part I and Part II |
| WilmerHale | Preet Bharara | The Legal Double Standard That’s Rarely Discussed |
| Winston & Strawn LLP | Keerthika M. Subramanian, Greg Garcia and Mollie Goldfarb | Equity Rights Offering Considerations As Maturity Cliff Looms |
THE BURTON AWARDS
The Burton Awards, established in 1999, is funded by the Burton Foundation, a non-profit 501(c)(3) organization and 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, including members of the military and executive branch of the government, and lifetime achievements in the profession. The Honorary and Distinguished Board of Directors of The Burton Awards Program includes: William C. Burton, Partner, Sagat|Burton LLP; former Chief Judge Richard A. Posner, U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit; U.S. Senator Michael F. Bennet; former U.S. Senator Robert P. Casey, Jr.; U.S. Senator Christopher Coons; U.S. Senator John Cornyn; U.S. Senator Mike Crapo; U.S. Senator Joni Ernst; U.S. Senator Tim Kaine; U.S. Senator James E. Risch; U.S. Senator Mike Rounds; U.S. Senator Chris Van Hollen Jr.; U.S. Senator Roger Wicker; U.S. Senator Todd Young; Justice Carol A. Corrigan, California Court of Appeals; Les Parrette, President, One Page Thinking; Jane Sullivan Roberts, Managing Partner, Macrae; H. Rodgin Cohen, Senior Chairman, Sullivan & Cromwell LLP; Betty Whelchel, Former Head of Public Policy & Regulatory Affairs, BNP Paribas S.A. (retired); Brad Karp, Chairman, Paul, Weiss Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison LLP; Linda A. Klein, Senior Managing Shareholder, Baker, Donelson, Bearman, Caldwell & Berkowitz, PC, and former President, American Bar Association; Stephen R. Mysliwiec, Partner, Miller Friel, PLLC; Bernard Nash, State Attorneys General Practice Co-Chair, Cozen O’Connor; Brian D. Burton, Senior Attorney, Alston & Bird; Hubert L. Allen, Executive Vice President, General Counsel and Secretary, Abbott; Bruce Byrd, Executive Vice President and General Counsel, Palo Alto Networks; Lynn Charytan, Executive Vice President and General Counsel, Comcast Cable; Elaine Mandelbaum, Interactive Brokers LLC; Lucy Fato, General Counsel & Corporate Secretary, Seaport Entertainment Group; Duane Holloway, Senior Vice President, General Counsel, Chief Ethics and Compliance Officer, U. S. Steel Corporation; Marc Kesselman, Executive Vice President, General Counsel and Corporate Secretary, Purdue Pharma; Jennifer Newstead, Chief Legal Officer, Meta; Anne E. Robinson, Senior Vice President and Chief Legal Officer, IBM; Maryanne R. Lavan, former Senior Vice President, General Counsel and Corporate Secretary, Lockheed Martin Corporation; Steve McManus, Chief Legal Officer, State Farm; Kevin O’Connor, Senior Vice President, General Counsel, Corporate Secretary, Lockheed Martin Corporation; Bradford Berenson, General Counsel, TPG; and Craig T. Beazer, Executive Vice President and General Counsel, Lincoln Financial.
LAW360, LEAD SPONSOR
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.
THE AMERICAN BAR ASSOCIATION, CO-SPONSOR
With nearly 400,000 members, the American Bar Association is one of the largest voluntary professional membership organizations in the world. As the national voice of the legal profession, the ABA works to improve the administration of justice, promotes programs that assist lawyers and judges in their work, accredits law schools, provides continuing legal education, and works to build public understanding around the world of the importance of the rule of law.
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.
WILLIAM C. BURTON, ESQ., CHAIRMAN
William C. Burton is a partner at Sagat|Burton LLP, New York. He is the Founder and Chairman of the Burton Awards Program. He is also the Founder and Chair of the Burton Foundation for Legal Achievement, which funds the program. He has served as a New York State Assistant Attorney General and an Assistant New York State Special Prosecutor. For fifteen years, he was the Director of Government Affairs for Continental Insurance, then one of the largest international insurance companies. He is the author of “Burton’s Legal Thesaurus,” the first and only reference book of its kind written for the legal profession. The book is now in its sixth edition. When it was published forty-one years ago, Mr. Burton was given a prestigious award by the Association of American Publishers which declared the book “One of the most Creative and Innovate Projects of the Year.”
In 1999, Mr. Burton created the Burton Foundation and established the non-profit Burton Awards Program with the initial goal of encouraging clear and comprehensive legal writing and rewarding other monumental achievements in law.
In 2010, Mr. Burton was awarded the prestigious Golden Pen Award by the Legal Writing Institute, the second largest organization of law professors in the United States with 3,000 members. The honor was given for his advocacy and impact on legal writing. Later in 2011, he was presented the “Blackstone Award” by the Friends of the Law Library of Congress for embodying and promoting the best ideals of the venerable institution.
He was a Legal Reform Award recipient from the U.S. Chamber Institute for Legal Reform in the fall of 2017. In 2022, Mr. Burton was selected as a member of the Hofstra Law School Hall of Fame. The Law School selected its top 50 graduates on celebrating its 50th Anniversary. He is also the recipient of the 2022 Lifetime Achievement Award from the American Society of Legal Writers comprised of more than 2,700 jurists, professors and practitioners. The award was previously presented to U.S. Supreme Court Justices Antonin Scalia, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Paul Stevens, and Stephen Breyer, and other prominent award winners. In 2024, he received the ABA Presidential Citation for his visionary leadership and contributions to the legal profession and society at large.