Three Thomas Jefferson School of Law students made excellent showings in recent legal writing competitions.

Matthew Valenti and Shannon Edwards

Thomas Jefferson students Matthew Valenti and Shannon Edwards were both finalists in the Nonsmoker’s Rights Legal Research and Writing Competition sponsored by the National Center for Nonsmoker’s Rights and George Washington School of Law Professor John Banfhaf.

Both Valenti and Edwards were flown to Washington, D.C. for the awards ceremony the weekend of April 7th at George Washington University.

Valenti won third place in the competition along with a $1,000 prize for his essay, Zone Smoking Off The Map – Literally, which proposed a "novel legal argument" that could be used to protect the rights of non-smokers. After taking Land Use Planning last semester Valenti, decided to argue that traditional land use zoning could be used to create smoke-free neighborhoods.

Shannon Edwards’ essay was titled, Anti-Ambulatory Smoking Regulation and was based on an entirely different approach to smoking bans. Instead of focusing on smoking regulations that attempt to designate areas or locales as non-smoking, her regulation proposed that smokers remain stationary while smoking. It was developed as a way to help nonsmokers avoid involuntary secondhand smoke exposure when in high-density foot traffic areas of cities. It attempted to blend the realities of the legal status of smoking as well as the health concerns of nonsmokers.

David Marshman

TJSL student David Marshman recently tied for third place in this contest for a paper he wrote in Intellectual Property and Competition Law entitled, In Line With Wine: Will Expanded Protection of Geographic Indications Favor Global Competition?

David’s paper was selected from 15 that were submitted in the Student Category of the Ladas Memorial Award

The Ladas Memorial Award Competition is open to all students, practitioners and academics interested in trademarks and trademark law and is sponsored by the International Trademark Association (INTA), a not-for-profit membership association of more than 5,000 trademark owners and professionals.