Austern Writing Competition

The H. Thomas Austern Writing Competition is intended to encourage law students interested in the areas of law affecting FDA-regulated industries.

2024 Austern Writing Competition

The H. Thomas Austern Writing Competition is intended to encourage law students interested in the areas of law affecting FDA-regulated industries: food, drugs, medical devices, biologics, dietary supplements, cosmetics, veterinary, cannabis, or tobacco and nicotine products.

Winners are awarded: $750 for first place, $500 for second, and $250 for third. Top papers will be considered for publication in the Food and Drug Law Journal.

Students currently enrolled in a JD program at any of the nation’s ABA-accredited law schools and 2023–2024 academic year graduates are eligible to participate. A committee comprised of FDLI members who are practicing attorneys and law professors will judge the papers over the summer, and winners will be announced in the fall. Top papers will receive a monetary prize and will be considered for publication in the Food and Drug Law Journal. Please read additional eligibility requirements in the submission portal.

Note: We do accept submissions that have been submitted to other writing contests. However, articles must be unpublished at the time of judging in order to remain in consideration for the competition. Articles that have been accepted for forthcoming publication will still be eligible for placement in the competition but will not be considered for publication in the Food and Drug Law Journal. Published papers will be disqualified from the Austern Competition.

We are currently accepting applications through 11:59 PM ET on Monday, June 3, 2024. Competition winners will be announced in Fall 2024.

Special Guidelines

  • Students should register for submission in our online competition portal; all papers must be submitted within the portal.
  • Paper topics are limited to FDA and regulated agencies’ laws and regulations. Topical focus should be on FDA-regulated industries:  food, drugs, animal drugs, biologics, cosmetics, diagnostics, dietary supplements, medical devices, veterinary devices, cannabis, or tobacco and nicotine products.
  • Students will submit an abstract.
  • No author identifying information may be included in the body of the text. The author’s name should only be shared when registering.
  • Papers shall not exceed 100 pages (assuming double spacing, one-inch margins).
  • Papers must be submitted no later than 11:59 PM ET on Monday, June 3, 2024.

Judging Considerations

  • Thoroughness and depth of legal analysis
  • Originality and difficulty of topic
  • Evaluation of judicial precedents, statutes, and regulations
  • Quality of thesis/argument
  • Quality of legal research
  • Writing style
  • Conciseness; quality will be valued over quantity
  • Form and quality of citations
  • Conformity with requirements of competition

Interested in Student Membership?

We encourage students interested in submitting to the Austern Writing Competition to apply for our complimentary Student Membership Program. This program is available to full-time students of accredited universities and provides access to member benefits as well as student-only discounts and programs.

2023 Award Winners

Congratulations to the winners of the 2023 H. Thomas Austern Writing Competition:

Billy Goulston | Read InterviewRead Abstract
Harvard Law School (2023)
First Place: “The Duty to Data Dump: A Preemption-Proof Proposal for Restoring Pharmacovigilance to the Generic Drug Industry”

Sophie DeBode | Read Interview | Read Abstract
Harvard Law School (2023)
Second Place: “The Need for FDA Regulation of Human Milk”

Cathy Zhang | Read Interview | Read Abstract
Harvard Law School (2023)
Third Place: “Reevaluating Testosterone’s Status as a Schedule III Controlled Substance”

2022 Award Winners

Congratulations to the winners of the 2022 H. Thomas Austern Writing Competition:

  • First Place: More Haste to Reduce Food Waste: Doing More Under Priority Area Four of the Winning on Reducing Food Waste Initiative, Allyson Wade, University of Maryland Francis King Carey School of Law
  • Second Place: It’s the Hard-Knock Life for Orphan Devices: A History of the FDA’s Humanitarian Device Exemption Program, Ray Wanderman Lefco, Harvard Law School
  • Third Place: Shattering the Mirage: The FDA’s Early COVID-19 Pandemic Response Demonstrates a Need for Reform to Restore Agency Credibility, Christina Fuleihan, Boston University School of Law

2021 Award Winners

Congratulations to the winners of the 2021 H. Thomas Austern Writing Competition:

  • First Place: Patently Ethical: Using Compulsory Patent Licensing to Increase Access to Medicines, Lauren Van Tress, Emory Law School
  • Second Place: Unnecessary and Burdensome: A Call for the FDA to Remove the Mifepristone REMS, Jenny Samuels, Harvard Law School
  • Third Place: What’s in a Flavor? A Proposal to Address Consumer Confusion Surrounding Natural Flavoring, Nena Gallegos, University of Chicago Law School

2020 Award Winners

Congratulations to the winners of the 2020 H. Thomas Austern Writing Competition:

  • First Place: Clinical Trial Data Reporting: Breaking Free of a Prisoner’s Dilemma, Darpan Patel, University of North Carolina School of Law
  • Second Place: Interpreting the “Same Level of Public Health Protection” in Produce Safety Rule Variances, Lauren Wustenberg, Vermont Law School
  • Third Place: Tobacco Reborn: The Rise of E-Cigarettes and Regulatory Approaches, Daniel Aaron, Harvard Law School

2019 Award Winners

Congratulations to the winners of the 2019 H. Thomas Austern Writing Competition:

  • First Place: A Penny for Your Clots? Examining Tax Incentives for Whole Blood Donation under FDA Guidelines, Kees Thompson, Harvard Law School
  • Second Place: Make Smoking Gross Again: Chevron, Deference, and Regulating America’s Favorite Addictive Chemical, Heather Pearson, University of Notre Dame Law School
  • Third Place: Formal Dispute Resolution and the Food and Drug Administration, Marlan Golden, Harvard Law School

2018 Award Winners

Congratulations to the winners of the 2018 H. Thomas Austern Writing Competition:

  • First Place: Left to Their Own Devices: How the Dangers of Power Morcellators Went Undetected by FDA For Two Decades, Jenya Godina, Harvard Law School
  • Second Place: Would Meat By Any Other Means Taste As Sweet, Taylor Mayhall, University of Minnesota Law School
  • Third Place: The Phenomenon of Financial Toxicity: Healthcare’s Insatiable Disease, Tyler Marquez, California Western School of Law

2017 Award Winners

Congratulations to the winners of the 2017 H. Thomas Austern Writing Competition:

  • First Place: Is the Incorporation of the United States Pharmacopeia into the Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act an Unconstitutional Delegation of Legislative Power?, Anne Stark, Harvard Law School
  • Second Place: Changing Our Minds: Reforming the FDA Medical Device Reclassification Process, Spenser F. Powell, The University of Tennessee College of Law
  • Third Place: Toward a Regulatory Framework for Edible Marijuana: Best Practices from an Analysis of State-Level Retail Marijuana Markets, 2014 – 2016, Jake Glicker, UCLA School of Law

About H. Thomas Austern

Thomas Austern, a practitioner of food and drug law with Covington & Burling for more than 50 years, was known in the field as the “Dean of the Food and Drug Bar.” He played a critical role in the drafting and negotiation of the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act among many other contributions to the field. Austern was a strong supporter of FDLI, serving on the Editorial Advisory Board of the Food Drug Cosmetic Law Journal from its inception until his death in 1984.