FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
October 14, 2008

   MEDIA CONTACT:
Elaine McIntyre
Continuing Education of the Bar • California
Tel: (510) 302-2134
Email: Elaine.McIntyre@ceb.ucop.edu

 

BENJAMIN BOTTS WINNER OF FIRST
CEB LEGAL RESEARCH & WRITING AWARD

Continuing Education of the Bar, California (CEB), has presented its first annual Award for Excellence in Legal Research and Writing to Benjamin Botts, a second-year student at the University of California, Berkeley School of Law. He receives a Certificate of Achievement and a $2500 cash prize.

Award winner Benjamin Botts and CEB's Johanna Sherlin.

Mr. Botts, a Berkeley native, also attended college at its UC campus as an undergraduate. After graduating he worked for three years as a paralegal at a small immigration law firm in San Francisco, where he helped low-income immigrants, mostly from Mexico and Central America, obtain legal status in the U.S. In law school he hopes to gain the skills necessary to provide effective and honest representation to similarly under-served communities in the context of immigration or employment law.

CEB's Award for Excellence in Legal Research and Writing recognizes outstanding performance by a first-year law student. The award is granted to the best brief produced in Written and Oral Advocacy, a required course for all first-year students at Boalt Hall. Instructors selected the top briefs, which were then reviewed by CEB's award selection committee. Botts' brief stood out to CEB's committee for its thorough, accurate legal analysis and clear, persuasive writing.

Says Botts of the award, "Winning this prize was a great honor, mostly because I saw what amazing work my colleagues did on their briefs. I also have to credit my classmates for the substantial amount of collective thought that went into the writing process. Though the work in the brief is my own, the seeds for many of the ideas behind it sprang from discussions I had with other students who were working on the same hypothetical case. I also owe a lot to the fantastic teaching I received from my written and oral advocacy instructor at Berkeley Law, Erin Clarke, and the teaching assistants in my section. They taught me everything I know about legal research and writing."

CEB's selection committee consisted of two Bay Area lawyers and one judge, all of whom are Boalt Hall alumni.
They are:

  • Honorable David B. Flinn, Judge
    Contra Costa County Superior Court
    University of California, Berkeley, School of Law 1963
    • Judge Flinn is a member of CEB's Governing Committee.
  • Cheryl L. Hicks, Esq.
    Oakland, California
    University of California, Berkeley, School of Law 1983
    • A past president of the Alameda County Bar Association, Cheryl currently practices solo and specializes in juvenile dependency, family law, and plaintiffs' personal injury litigation.
  • Palmer Brown Madden, Esq.
    ADR Services, Alamo, California
    University of California, Berkeley, School of Law 1973
    • Palmer is a past president of the State Bar of California; a former member of CEB's Governing Committee; a former litigation partner with McCutchen, Doyle, Brown & Enersen (now Bingham, McCutchen); and currently in practice offering alternative dispute resolution services.

CEB, a statewide continuing legal education provider and publisher founded in 1947, is part of the University of California and is cosponsored by the State Bar of California. Its mission is to serve the legal profession in California with authoritative, innovative, and high-quality products and services. For more information about CEB products, call CEB at 1-800-232-3444 or visit ceb.com.

###