Kyle McEntee, Class of 2011, and Patrick Lynch, Class of 2010, are the joint winners of the Above the Law blog's “2010 Lawyer of the Year” poll.
Read the Above the Law post announcing the "Lawyer of the Year" results
Now conducted at the end of each year, the Above the Law poll is based on nominations solicited from the blog’s readers, who are then asked to vote on 10 nominees selected by Above the Law’s editorial staff, which currently includes managing editor David Lat and editor Elie Mystal. McEntee and Lynch garnered national attention for founding Law School Transparency, a Tennessee-based non-profit organization with the stated goal of “encouraging and facilitating the transparent flow of law school employment information” in 2009.
McEntee and Lynch say they drew the inspiration for Law School Transparency from annual reports Vanderbilt Law School shares with admitted students that indicate where and with whom recent graduates were employed.
McEntee holds a B.A. in philosophy from the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill and is finishing his final semester at Vanderbilt Law School, where he is an articles selection editor on the Vanderbilt Journal of Transnational Law. He was a Mock Trial tournament semifinalist and received a Top Litigator award. He has worked as a legal intern for Yahoo! in Sunnyvale, California, for an entertainment lawyer in Nashville, Tennessee, and for a hedge fund in Franklin, Tennessee.
In addition to his J.D. from Vanderbilt Law School, Lynch holds a B.A. in economics and English literature from Fairfield University in Connecticut. At Vanderbilt he was one of 23 graduates who received a Pro Bono Service Award for his commitment to providing legal pro bono assistance and community service. As a Vanderbilt Law student, he served as executive editor of the Environmental Law and Policy Annual Review (ELPAR), president of the Environmental Law Society, and co-founded Law Students for Social Justice. He has worked for public interest and private environmental and regulatory groups around the country, including United Technologies Inc., Vinson & Elkins, Riverkeeper Inc., and the Land Trust for Tennessee. After earning his J.D. in May 2010, Lynch received a Public Service Initiative award from Vanderbilt and currently works for Ética en los Bosques, a forest advocacy group based in Villarrica, Chile. He recently passed the New York Bar Examination and is pending admission to the New York Bar.