Elon Law student places third in national legal writing contest

Rebecca Elliott L'19 was honored in the Adam A. Milani Disability Law Writing Competition sponsored by the Mercer University School of Law and the ABA Commission on Mental and Physical Disability Law.

An Elon Law student has parlayed a class assignment from last spring into national accolades.

Rebecca Elliott L’19 placed third overall in the 2018 Adam A. Milani Disability Law Writing Competition sponsored by the Mercer University School of Law and the ABA Commission on Mental and Physical Disability Law.

The competition honors the work of the late Mercer Law Professor Adam Milani, a passionate advocate for disability rights, an accomplished legal scholar, and a faculty member at Mercer Law who crafted a national reputation for excellence in scholarship on disability discrimination. Milani was himself a quadriplegic and died in 2005 of complications from surgery.

Elliott said that her success in the competition serves as inspiration to help classmates thrive in their own pursuits.

“It’s a personal point of pride to see that my writing skills are competitive on a national level,” Elliott said. “As a student and a teaching assistant, I hope to help encourage my classmates to continue developing their own skills. There is always, always, room for improvement in one’s writing.”

A graduate of Clemson University and a former Military Police Officer in the U.S. Army, Elliott was encouraged last year to enter the competition by former Elon Law faculty member Drew Simshaw, who taught Elliott in the Legal Method & Communication course. The topic of the appellate brief for which Elliott was honored – a fictional case involving the Pregnancy Discrimination Act – also served as the problem for Elon Law’s springtime intramural moot court competition.

Faculty praised the second-year Elon Law student for her writing skills and her commitment to excellence.

“I taught Rebecca in her first trimester of law school, and her skills were so strong, I hired her to work as my research assistant,” said Professor Sue Liemer, director of Elon Law’s Legal Method & Communication Program. “I’m delighted that she has received this national recognition. It’s fun to work with students like her who are enthusiastic about each new challenge.”

Top finishers in the 2018 Adam A. Milani Disability Law Writing Competition

  • First place: Ryan McMullan, from Emory University School of Law
  • Second place: Maya Lindgren, from University of New Mexico School of Law
  • Third place: Rebecca H. Elliott, from Elon University School of Law