W&M law student wins writing competition
The Environmental Law Institute has chosen an article by Kristin McCarthy, a rising third-year student at William & Mary Law School, as the winner of its 2017-2018 Henry L. Diamond Constitutional Environmental Law Writing Competition, the Institute announced May 15.
She will receive a $2,000 award and the Institute will publish her article titled "An American [State] in Paris: The Constitutionality of States’ Commitments to the Paris Agreement" in a forthcoming issue of the Environmental Law Reporter, one of the most frequently cited journals on environmental and natural resource issues.
Jay Austin, senior attorney at the institute and editor-in-chief of the Reporter said in a press release that McCarthy’s paper “elegantly addresses several questions that arose following the Trump Administration’s withdrawal from Paris.” An article by Rebecca Susko of Fordham University Law School received honorable mention.
McCarthy earned her undergraduate degree in 2010 from William & Mary. She had a dual major in environmental policy and government and was a member of the varsity track and field team.
At W&M Law School, she is a member of the William & Mary Law Review, president of the Student Environmental & Animal Law Society and a general board member and small events co-chair of the Public Service Fund. During her 1L summer, she worked in the Land Law division of the California Attorney General's Office in Los Angeles and recently returned to the city for a summer position at Greenberg Traurig.
The national writing competition is made possible by the support of Beveridge & Diamond, P.C., and invites submissions of articles written by law students that explore topics at the intersection of environmental and constitutional law.
