The California Lawyers Association’s (CLA) Business Law Section (BLS) is proud to announce its 2025 Law Student Essay Contest. Through this award, the Section seeks to recognize law student authors of exceptional scholarship on the subject of California’s corporate governance landscape. The first-place winner will receive a $3,000 cash prize for reimbursement of a bar review program.

Prize: First Place award of $3,000 (for reimbursement of bar review program costs)

Deadline: March 2, 2026 – 11:59 p.m. Pacific Time

Essay Focus

Entrants are invited to submit an original essay of 2,500–3,500 words on the topic:
“A Survey of the California Corporate Governance Landscape.”

Essays should:

• Summarize California’s corporate governance framework of laws and regulations;
• Analyze incentives and disincentives that influence whether corporations remain in California or relocate; and
• Propose innovative legislative alternatives that would encourage corporations to remain and expand operations in California.

Submission Deadline: Submissions must be received in PDF or Word format to the DropBox portal no later than 11:59 p.m. Pacific Time on March 2, 2026. Submissions received after this time will not be considered.

For additional information on Submission Requirements, Award Criteria, and Official Rules, see below.

Official Rules of the Law Student Essay Contest

Sponsor

The sponsor of the contest is the California Lawyers Association, 400 Capitol Mall, Suite 650, Sacramento, CA 95814 (“Sponsor”).

Eligibility

To be eligible to participate in the 2025 BLS/CLA Essay Contest (the “Essay Contest”), an applicant (“Entrant”) must:

1. Be a currently enrolled law school student who is registered for the July 2026 or February 2027 California Bar Examination at the time of Entry (defined below in the section entitled “Entry Procedure”);
2. Be the sole author of their Entry – no group entries; entries written by anyone other than the Entrant, or entries which include content generated in whole or in part by generative AI will be disqualified;
3. Submit their Entry in the English language;
4. Submit Only one Entry per Entrant;
5. Not be an immediate family member (parents, spouses, children, siblings) or residing in the household of a judge participating in  the Essay Contest (a “Judge”).

The following persons are not eligible to participate as Entrants in the Essay Contest: (1) employees, officers, and directors of the Sponsor (“Sponsor Persons”); (2)  members of the immediate families (parents, spouses, children, siblings) or individuals residing in their household (whether or not related) of Sponsor Persons; and (4) winners of any other CLA or CLA section contest. The following persons are also not eligible to participate as Entrants in the Essay Contest: (1) immediate family members (parents, spouses, children, siblings) of Judges; and (2) any individuals residing in the household of a Judge (whether or not related to the Judge).

Term

The Essay  will begin on November 3, 2025 at 12:01 a.m. Pacific Time and end on March 2, 2026  at 11:59 p.m. Pacific Time.  All entries must be submitted no later than 11:59 p.m. Pacific Time on March 2, 2026 (the “Deadline”). By submitting an entry, each Entrant agrees to the Essay Contest Rules. The Essay Contest is a skills-based contest and chance plays no part in the determination of the winner.

Entry Procedure

Entrants must submit an original essay, which has not been previously published anywhere or which has not been submitted for any other CLA or CLA section contest, on the subject of “a survey of the California corporate governance landscape” (“Entry”). The format and substance of the Entry shall conform to the following:

1. The length of the Entry shall be 2500-3500 words, 12 pt. font, 1.5 line spacing.
2. Footnotes may be used; however the Entry should not be in law review article form.
3. The Entry must be submitted in .pdf or .doc format. Entries must be submitted online through the application portal before the Deadline.
4. The Entry shall not include any content that (a) is obtained from the use of generative AI technology; (b) includes unauthorized third-party content; or (c) is not created by Entrant.  Any Entry which contains any of the foregoing content shall be disqualified and excluded from the Essay Contest.
5. The Sponsor is not responsible for and will void entries submitted but not received for any reason, including (a) lost, late, incomplete, or corrupted Entries; and (b) technical issues with the entry process.
6. No purchase is necessary to enter or win.  A  purchase will not increase your chance of winning. Void where prohibited by law.

General Rules

No Entry can be withdrawn after the applicable deadline for Entry described in the section above entitled “Entry Procedure.” None of the Sponsor or affiliated entities or agents of the Sponsor, are responsible for any illegible, lost, stolen, late, damaged, incomplete, mutilated or misdirected Entries or other documents. Entrants are responsible for ensuring proper contact information has been correctly submitted and updated as needed through the Sponsor portal to allow communications about the Essay Contest.

Erroneous or false information provided in the Entry will result in immediate disqualification of the Entrant. Sponsor and the Judges otherwise retain the right to disqualify any Entrant in their sole discretion.

If, for any reason, the Essay Contest is not capable of running as planned, Sponsor reserves the right in Sponsor’s sole discretion to cancel, terminate, modify, or suspend the Essay Contest  at any time. Sponsor reserves the right to amend the rules of the contest at any time.

By creating an Entry, or by being an Entrant, you understand that there is no joint venture, partnership, employment, or agency relation between you and the Sponsor arising from any Entry.

The decision of the Judges are final, and Entrants specifically agree that the decision of the Judges and any decisions of the Sponsor are not subject to review or appeal in any forum whatsoever, including courts of law.

Any information provided as part of the Essay  Contest is provided according to the Privacy Policy, as such policy may be amended from time to time, and as otherwise provided for in these Rules. Entrants agree that personal data, in particular name and address, may be processed, shared, and otherwise used for the purposes and within the context of the Contest and any other purposes outlined in these Essay Contest General Rules and according to the website’s Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. The data may also be used by the Sponsor in order to verify the Entrant’s First Name, Last Name, School Name, ZIP Code, Phone Number/Email, California State Bar Exam registration, or to otherwise verify the Entrant’s eligibility to participate in the Essay Contest. Participants have the right to access, review, rectify, or cancel any personal data held by the Sponsor by writing to California Lawyers Association, ATTN: BLS Essay Contest,  400 Capitol Mall, Suite 650, Sacramento, CA 95814, businesslaw@calawyers.org.

Contest Prizes

A cash prize of  $3,000.00 shall be awarded to the winner for reimbursement of the actual out of pocket cost incurred for a bar review program.  The winner is required to complete and submit an IRS Form W-9 prior to receiving the prize award.

Winner’s Name

To request a list of the name of the Essay Contest winner send a self-addressed, stamped envelope to California Lawyers Association, ATTN: BLS Essay Contest,  400 Capitol Mall, Suite 650, Sacramento, CA 95814.

Odds of Winning

The odds of winning depend upon the number of Entries received and the quality of the Entries.

Judging Criteria

Each Entry will be evaluated by Judges selected by the Sponsor.  Judges are attorneys admitted to the State Bar of California and Executive Committee members and/or advisors of the Business Law Section of the California Lawyers Association. Each Judge will use the 100-point judging rubric published on the on-line submission page to evaluate each Entry. The judging rubric made part of these rules specifies the point value attributed to their corresponding criteria. These criteria include: “Provides a comprehensive summary of the California corporate governance framework of laws and regulations, including citations” (30 points); “Clearly and succinctly analyzes the corporate governance laws and regulations to identify incentives and disincentives which likely influence decisions on whether to relocate” (30 points); “Proposes innovative legislative alternatives which remove disincentives and/or add incentives which encourage corporations to remain and expand operations in California” (40 points).

Publicity Release

Entrant hereby grants the Sponsor and any corporate or individual benefactors of the Essay Contest, a non-exclusive, perpetual, worldwide, transferable license to edit, telecast, exhibit, rerun, reproduce, use, syndicate, license, print, distribute, and otherwise exploit any and all items, including but nor limited to Entrant’s name, image,  likeness, voice, and any photos, videos, audio, or written material, contact and biographical information, submitted as part of your Essay Contest Entry, or any portion thereof, in any manner, and in any and all formats and media now known or hereafter devised, and any and all statements made by Entrant regarding the Sponsor, Essay Contest, or any other person or entity related to the Essay Contest (“Entry Material”), without payment to Entrant or any third party. Entrant represents and warrants that Entrant is at least 18 years of age or older and provides  express consent for Entrant’s Entry Material to appear in any materials submitted in the Essay Contest or related event or ceremony, and Entrant has the full legal right, power, and authority to grant this license to the Sponsor.

Limitation of Liability

By entering the Essay Contest, Entrant agrees that (1) any and all disputes, claims, and causes of action arising out of or in connection with the Essay Contest, or any prizes awarded, shall be resolved individually without resort to any form of class action; (2) any claims, judgment, and awards shall be limited to actual out-of-pocket costs incurred, including costs associated with entering the Essay Contest, but in no event attorney’s fees; and (3) under no circumstances, will any Entrant be permitted to obtain any award for, and Entrant hereby waives all rights to claim, punitive, incidental, or consequential damages, and any and all rights to have damages multiplied or otherwise increased and any other damages, other than damages for actual out-of-pocket expenses. In no event shall the liability of the Sponsor exceed $100.