Jennifer Purcell of Chicago, Senior Labor & Employment Counsel at Cook County Health & Hospitals System, is the first place winner in the ISBA’s 2016 Lincoln Award Legal Writing Contest. Jennifer received a cash award of $2,000, and her article, “Representing Clients under the New Illinois Pregnancy Accommodation Act,” appeared in the February Illinois Bar Journal. The contest is sponsored by the Young Lawyers Division and open to YLD members.

Second place winner is Joseph Nichele, Naperville, who wrote “The Shield Turned into a Sword:  A Plaintiff’s Perspective of Negligent Spoliation of Evidence Claims after Martin v. Keeley & Sons, Inc.” Third place goes to Brandon Wise, O’Fallon, for “Evaluating an Unpaid Minimum Wage Claim in Illinois.” The second place winner gets a $1,000 cash prize, and the third place winner received $500.

Thirty-two manuscripts were submitted in the 2016 contest. The contest judges were Justice Mary Seminara-Schostok, Libertyville, presiding justice of the second district appellate court; Hon. Thomas V. Lyons, II, Chicago, a trial judge in the law division of the Circuit Court of Cook County; Donald Bigham, a partner at Seibert, Bigham & Tanner in Pinckneyville; Lisa L. Dunn, a partner at Massucci, Blomquist, Anderson & Dunn in Arlington Heights; and Edward “Ted” Graham, Jr., a partner at Beavers, Graham & Calvert in Taylorville.

Watch for information in the coming months about next year's Lincoln Award contest.