PRESS RELEASE: Trinity Brown Named Recipient of Inaugural Law Student Writing Award

WASHINGTON, D.C. – The National Academy of Social Insurance is pleased to announce Trinity Brown as winner of the 1^st Annual Law Student Writing Award. Brown wrote her paper, “The Doctor as Diagnostician and Adjudicator: Do Disparities Translate to Denials in the Sequential Evaluation Process?” as a 3rd year law student at Yale Law School. The paper was nominated for the award by Noah Zatz, Professor of Law, at the University of Los Angeles School of Law.|

The award, which includes a $2,500 prize, will be presented at the membership luncheon during the Academy’s 27^th Annual Conference in Washington, DC. The Borchard Foundation Center on Law and Aging supports the award.

Honorable mentions were awarded to Kelsey Leingang of Loyola University of Chicago School of Law and Rachel Polzin of Saint Louis University. Kelsey Leingang’s law paper, “A Growing Hole in the Safety Net for Disabled Americans: How Federalism Has Created Inefficiency in the Adjudication of Social Security Disability Claims” was nominated by Nadia Sawicki, Associate Professor of Law of Loyola University of Chicago School of Law. Rachel Polzin’s law paper, “The Decision to Admit a Patient: Was ‘Two Midnights’ Enough Time to Find the Best Answer?” was nominated by Thomas L. Greaney, Chester A. Meyers Professor of Law also of Saint Louis University.

The Borchard Foundation Center on Law and Aging furthers education and research that will improve the lives of older persons, particularly the disadvantaged. This award was created to recognize talented legal scholars by virtue of their important contribution to the growing evidence base in social insurance policy and to give them prominence in their field. In partnering with the Borchard Foundation Center on Law and Aging, the Academy hopes to attract bright and motivated students who produce scholarship of high quality and to raise awareness to the importance of social insurance related research within the field of law.

The award selection committee is chaired by Renée Landers of Suffolk University Law School, and consists of the following members: Richard Kaplan of University of Illinois Law School, Lance Liebman of Columbia Law School, Sallyanne Payton of the University of Michigan, and Emily Spieler of Northeastern Law School.

The Academy will soon be accepting nominations for the 2016 Law Student Writing Award. To obtain application forms and additional information, visit the “student opportunities section” of www.nasi.org.