Micah N. Bradley of Brentwood, Tennessee, has won the Founder’s Medal signifying first honors in Vanderbilt Law School’s J.D. Class of 2020.
Bradley also received the Robert F. Jackson Memorial Prize, awarded to the member of the second-year law class who has maintained the highest scholastic average during the two years, and the Archie B. Martin Memorial Prize for Scholarship, awarded to the student of the first-year law class who earned the highest general average for the year.
During her 3L year, she served as senior en banc editor of the Vanderbilt Law Review and as articles editor of the Environmental Law and Policy Annual Review. As a 2L, she was a Legal Writing teaching assistant.
Bradley will work as a law clerk for Judge Eli Richardson ’92 of the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Tennessee in 2020-21. She is the daughter of Lori Michelle Bradley (MS’90).
Twenty additional members of the Class of 2020 received academic honors, journal awards, citizenship and leadership awards, or recognition from the Vanderbilt Bar Association.
Academic Awards
Emmanuel Peace of Novi, Michigan, received the Weldon B. White Prize,awarded for submitting the best paper in fulfillment of the law school’s advanced writing requirement.
Szymon Barnas of Norridge, Illinois, received the Richard Nagareda Award from the Cecil D. Branstetter Litigation and Dispute Resolution Program, which recognizes extraordinary achievement in the study of litigation and dispute resolution.
Anna Choi of Crystal Lake, Illinois, received the Carl J. Ruskowski Clinical Legal Education Award, which recognizes the student who, in his representation of clients in the law school’s clinical program, demonstrated excellent in practice of law and best exemplified the highest standards of the legal profession.
Journal Awards
Szymon Barnas of Norridge, Illinois, received the Morgan Prize, awarded to the graduate who submitted the outstanding piece of writing to the Vanderbilt Law Review during the school year.
Hannah M. Miller of Annondale, Virginia, received the G. Scott Briggs Transnational Legal Studies Award, awarded to the third-year student who has exhibited a high degree of scholastic achievement in transnational legal studies and made the most significant contribution to the development of international legal inquiries while a student at Vanderbilt.
Jill Warnock of Annapolis, Maryland, received the Law Review Editor’s Award, which goes to the third-year editorial board member who has made the most significant contributions to the Vanderbilt Law Review.
Jeffrey Turner of Clarkston, Michigan, received the Law Review Candidate’s Award, awarded by the second-year staff of the Vanderbilt Law Review to the third-year staff member who made the most significant contribution to their development as Law Review staff members.
Marissa Barbalato of Holly Springs, North Carolina, received the Grace Wilson Sims Medal in Transnational Law, which goes to the editorial board member, other than the editor-in-chief, judged to have done the most outstanding work on the Vanderbilt Journal of Transnational Law during the academic year.
David Kolansky of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, received the Grace Wilson Sims Prize for Excellence in Student Writing in Transnational Law, award to the member of the graduate class contributing the best Note submitted for publication in the Vanderbilt Journal of Transnational Law.
Christina Jeffcoat of Suwanee, Georgia, received the Grace Wilson Sims Medal in Transnational Law, Third Year, which goes to the member of the third-year staff selected as having done the most outstanding work on the Vanderbilt Journal of Transnational Law during the academic year.
Alice Haston of Nashville, Tennessee, received the Journal of Entertainment and Technology Law Student Writing Award, which goes to the student who submitted the most outstanding piece of student writing for publication in the journal
Amber Banks of Ashburn, Virginia, received the Christopher S. Lantz Memorial Journal of Entertainment and Technology Law Outstanding Service Award, which goes to the student, other than the editor-in-chief, who has made the most significant contribution to the advancement of the Vanderbilt Journal of Entertainment and Technology Law.
Grant Newton of Kingfisher, Oklahoma, received the Journal of Entertainment & Technology Law Impact Award, which recognizes the third-year member who the staff editors believe made the most positive impact on JETLaw.
Citizenship and Leadership Awards
Dora Duru received the Bennett Douglas Bell Memorial Award, which is awarded “to the student of the senior law class, who is not only well versed in the law, but who embodies the highest conception of the ethics of the profession, and who would strive to ‘Do justly, love mercy, and walk humbly with God,’ as did the one in whose memory the prize is given and whose name it bears, Bennett Douglas Bell.”
Christopher Scribner of New York, New York, received the Junius L. Allison Legal Aid Award, which honors the graduate judged to have made the most significant contribution to the work of the Vanderbilt Legal Aid Society during his tenure at Vanderbilt.
Natalie Komrovsky of Independence, Ohio, received the American Law Institute CLE Scholarship and Leadership Award, which recognizes the student in the graduating class who best represents a combination of leadership and scholarship.
Elizabeth Holden of Metairie, Louisiana, received the National Association of Women Lawyers’ Outstanding Law Student Award, which includes membership in the NAWL.
Erik Peterson of Spicewood, Texas, received the Thomas C. Banks Awards for the Outstanding Jessup Moot Court Team Member, awarded by the competition team to the members who have made the greatest contribution to the overall success of the team during the previous year.
Feyisola O. (Funmi) Akinnawonu of Valley Stream, New York, received the BLSA Damali A. Booker Public Interest Award, awarded to the member of the Black Law Students’ Association who shows dedication to legal work in the public interest. She has been named a 2020 George Barrett Social Justice Fellow.
Vanderbilt Bar Association Awards
Elizabeth Holden of Metairie, Louisiana, received the Chris Lantz Award, presented each year to the graduating student “who demonstrates a dedication to developing a sense of community among his or her classmates with a strong capacity for leadership and commitment to his or her legal studies.” The award was endowed by the Class of 2011 to honor the memory of their friend, classmate and former Vanderbilt Bar Association President Chris Lantz.
Wesley Gonzales of Pensacola, Florida, received the Damali A. Booker Award, presented annually to the graduating student “who has a keen dedication to legal activism and a demonstrated commitment to confronting social issues facing both Vanderbilt Law School and the greater Nashville community.”
Amber Banks of Ashburn, Virginia, received the Philip G. Davidson Award, presented to the graduate “chosen by the Vanderbilt Bar Association Board of Governors, who is dedicated to the law and its problem-solving role in society, and who provides exemplary leadership in service to the Law School and the greater community.”
Joey Blake of Gastonia, North Carolina, and Kristine Knowles of Fort Myers, Florida, were honored with the Jordan A. Quick Award, given to the graduates “judged to have made the greatest contribution to the quality of life at the law school through their leadership with the Vanderbilt Bar Association.”