Richard M. Frank Environmental Law Writing Prize

Submission deadline: Friday, April 18, 2008


The Richard M. Frank Environmental Law Writing Prize will be awarded this spring. The competition is open to all students enrolled at the UC Davis School of Law. The winner will receive a cash prize of $400, and his or her name will be engraved on a plaque to be displayed at the law school.

Papers may be on any topic related to environmental, land use, or natural resources law or policy. Papers must be individually authored. They must not have been previously published or committed for publication. UC Davis environmental law faculty will judge the competition. The prize will be awarded for the paper which makes the most significant scholarly contribution, taking into consideration factors including: originality of thought, importance and difficulty of the topic, depth of research, and quality of writing and analysis. The winning paper will be published in Environs.

Submission requirements: Papers must be double-spaced, single-sided, in 12-point font on letter-size paper. They may be of any length. Citations should conform to the current edition of The Bluebook: A Uniform System of Citation. Attach a cover page with the title, author’s name, expected graduation date, contact information (mailing address, e-mail, and phone number), and the words “Frank Prize Submission” at the top. The paper following the title page must not identify the author in any way, but must begin with the title. Papers must be submitted in hard copy to Environs (place them in the Environs mailbox outside the Dean’s office) no later than 5 p.m. on April 18, 2008. If you have questions about the competition, please direct them to Professors Doremus, Elmendorf, or Lin.

The Richard M. Frank Prize honors the contributions of Richard M. (Rick) Frank, ‘74, to environmental law practice and education. Following positions as a staff attorney with the Federal Energy Administration in Washington, D.C., and the California Energy Commission, Mr. Frank joined the California Department of Justice in 1977. For approximately 25 years, he specialized in environmental and land use litigation, representing the State of California, its agencies and officials. He rose to the position of Chief Deputy Attorney General for Legal Affairs, in which capacity he oversaw all civil and criminal litigation handled by the Department of Justice on behalf of California state government and the people of the State of California, in both state and federal courts, and supervised a staff of approximately 1100 attorneys and a comparable number of paralegals, investigators and other legal support staff. In 2006, Mr. Frank left the Department of Justice to assume his current position as the first Executive Director of the California Center for Environmental Policy at Boalt Hall School of Law (UC Berkeley). He has taught courses in environmental law at Boalt Hall, UC Davis, and Lincoln Law School in Sacramento. He has written and lectured extensively on a wide array of environmental, land use, natural resource and constitutional issues.