Robert Berlin, Class of 2007 Wins ABA TIPS Award

Release:            Immediate

Online:              www.abanet.org/tips/press

Contact:           Sarai Shacklett

Phone:              312/988-5574

E-mail:              shackles@staff.abanet.org

UNIVERSITYOF MINNESOTA LAW STUDENT WINS 2006 ABA TORT TRIAL & INSURANCE PRACTICE SECTION LAW STUDENT WRITING COMPETITION

CHICAGO, June 26, 2006— The American Bar Association Tort Trial & Insurance Practice Sectiontoday announced that Robert Berlin, a student at the University of Minnesota School of Law and School of Public Health in Minneapolis, has won first place in the fourth annual TIPS Law Student Writing Contest.

TIPS established the Law Student Writing Competition in 2002 to attract law students to the civil trial, tort and insurance fields, and to encourage and reward scholarship in these areas. 

Berlin’s winning paper is titled “Epidemiology as More Than Statistics:  A Revised Tool for Products Liability.”  His winning entry will be considered for publication in the Tort Trial & Insurance Law Journal. In addition, he will receive $1,500 and round-trip airfare and hotel accommodations to attend the ABA Annual Meeting in Waikiki, Hawaii.

The second place winner, Darlene S. Wood, is a student at Duquesne University School of Lawin Pittsburgh, whose paper is titled “Maritime Oil Pollution and Punitive Damages:  Advocating International Environmental Consensus Law.”  Wood will receive $500 and an honorable mention in the TIPS news magazine, The Brief.

Two third place winners were selected, Anna Elizabeth Holland from California Western School of Law in San Diego, and Kathryn E Kransdorf from the University of Richmond School of Law in Richmond, Va. Holland’s paper,“Ending the Performance Enhancing Drug Epidemic - Let's Stop the Problem Where it Starts - Imposing Liability on Drug Manufacturers,” and Kransdorf’s paper, “Can you Hear Me Now?  Protecting Patients and Anesthesiologist Against Anesthesia Awareness,” will also receive an honorable mention in The Brief.

TIPS Law Student Writing Competition is open to all law school students in good standing, over the age of 18, who are currently attending an ABA accredited law school within the United States and its possessions.  Participants must be members of the ABA Law Student Division at the time the entry is submitted.  For more information and a complete list of rules, please visit the TIPS Law Student Web site at http://www.abanet.org/tips/lawstudent.

The ABA Tort Trial & Insurance Practice Section is the only national professional group to bring together plaintiffs’ lawyers, defense lawyers and insurance and corporate counsel for the exchange of information and ideas. The section’s more than 30,000 members and 36 general committees focus on substantive and procedural matters in areas including aviation and space law, fidelity and surety law, medical malpractice, transportation law and others.