Eighteen 2013 law graduates were honored with awards recognizing their scholastic achievements and professional and personal leadership during their tenure at Vanderbilt Law School, and recognized during Commencement ceremonies May 9.
Angela Lee Bergman was awarded the Founder’s Medal, signifying first honors in Vanderbilt Law School’s Class of 2013, at the university’s commencement ceremony. Bergman also received the Law Review Editor’s Award, which goes to the third-year editorial board members who make the most significant contributions to the Vanderbilt Law Review.
Thomas Wilfrid Watson received 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, awarded to 2010-11, and the Junius L. Allison Legal Aid Award, which goes to the graduate judged to have made the most significant contribution to the work of the Vanderbilt Legal Aid Society during his tenure at Vanderbilt. Watson is a native of Boise, Idaho.
Seamus Timothy Kelly received the Philip G. Davidson Award, presented each year to the student who has demonstrated dedication to the law and its problem-solving role in society, and who has provided exemplary leadership in service to the law school and the greater community, and the Carl J. Ruskowski Clinical Legal Education Award, which goes to the student who, in his or her representation of clients in the law school’s clinical program, demonstrated excellence in practice of law and best exemplified the highest standards of the legal profession. Kelly is from Churchville, Pennsylvania.
Ann-Marie Mikkelsen received the Weldon B. White Prize, awarded to the graduate who submitted the best paper in fulfillment of the law school’s advanced writing requirement. Mikkelson is from Nashville
Margaret Tanzman Artz received both 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 who has made the most significant contribution to the development of international legal inquiries while a student at Vanderbilt, and the Grace Wilson Sims Prize for Excellence in Student Writing in Transnational Law, awarded for submitting the best Note for publication in the Vanderbilt Journal of Transnational Law. Artz is from Millville, Utah.
Wyatt Gregory Sassman received the Bennett Douglas Bell Memorial Prize, awarded to “the student of the senior law class who is not only well-versed in the law, but who shows the highest conception of the ethics of the profession.” Sassman is from Franklin, Tennessee.
David J. Goldberg received the Stanley D. Rose Memorial Book Award for submitting the best legal writing in the field of jurisprudence or legal history in fulfillment of the law school’s advanced writing requirement. Goldberg is from Buffalo Grove, Illinois.
Molly Flynn Mullican Chen 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. Chen is a native of of Gillette, New Jersey.
Alexander Schaan Rinn received the Vanderbilt Journal of Transnational Law Outstanding Editor Award, which goes to the member of the third-year staff selecting as having done the most outstanding work on the Vanderbilt Journal of Transnational Law during the academic year. Rinn is from Cold Spring, Minnesota.
Michael Fitzgerald Dearington received the Chris 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. Dearington is from Madison, Connecticut.
Mary Gale Hall received the National Association of Women Lawyers’ Outstanding Law Student Award, which goes to the student whose law school involvement best fulfills the goals of contributing to the advancement of women in society and promoting women’s issues in the legal profession, and “who has exhibited tenacity, enthusiasm, and academic achievement while earning the respect of others.” Hall is from Alexandria, Virginia.
Tayler Mayly Owings received the Morgan Prize for submitting the most outstanding piece of student writing to the Vanderbilt Law Review during her second year. Owings is from Nashville.
Samuel John Hershey Beutler received the Jordan A. Quick Memorial Award, awarded to the student judged to have made the greatest contribution to the quality of life at the law school through leadership with the Vanderbilt Bar Association. Beutler is a native of Lincoln, Nebraska.
Justin Philip Gunter received the Richard Nagareda Award, awarded by the Cecil D. Branstetter Litigation and Dispute Resolution Program to recognize extraordinary achievement in the study of litigation and dispute resolution. Gunter is from Wiggins, Mississippi.
Gibreault Cooper Creason received the K. Harlan Dodson Moot Court Staff Award, which goes to the senior member of the Moot Court staff, other than the chief justice, who has rendered the most outstanding service throughout the previous year in all aspects of the Moot Court program. Creason is from Cordova, Tennessee.
Daniel Horwitz received the Damali A. Booker Award, which is presented each year to the third-year law 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. Horwitz is from Los Angeles, California.
Niels John Melius received the Journal of Entertainment and Technology Law Student Writing Award, which goes to the graduate who submitted the most outstanding piece of student writing for publication in the journal. Melius is a native of Wilton Manors, Florida.
Katherine Byrnes Horton received the Thomas C. Banks Award 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. Horton is from Littleton, Colorado.
Two J.D./Ph.D. candidates were also honored with awards which were announced this spring:
Caroline Cecot, who will earn a J.D./Ph.D. in law and economics in 2014, received the Robert F. Jackson Memorial Prize, awarded to the member of the second-year class who maintains the highest scholastic average during the first two years of law school, in 2011-12. Cecot is from Brooklyn, New York.
Virginia Blair Druhan, who will earn a J.D./Ph.D. in law and economics in 2015, received the Myron Penn Laughlin Note Award, which goes to the student, other than the winner of the Morgan Prize, who contributed the best student Note published in the Vanderbilt Law Review, and the Law Review Candidates Award, awarded by the second-year Vanderbilt Law Review staff to the third-year student, other than the editor-in-chief, who has made the most significant contribution to the development of Law Review staff members. Druhan is from Mobile, Alabama.
