The Michael MacNaughton Student Writing Award for Insolvency Law

About the Award

The Michael MacNaughton Student Writing Award for Insolvency Law was created to encourage law students who are CBA/OBA Members who are pursuing a J.D. degree at an Ontario law school or registered as a student-at-law member of the Law Society of Ontario to prepare a written submission, having regard to the criteria below, on a recent case or a topical issue of interest to insolvency practitioners. The late Michael MacNaughton was one of the leading insolvency lawyers in Canada and was well known for his consistent contributions to the body of literature in the area of insolvency and restructuring.

Eligibility

  1. In order to be eligible as submission must be authored by one or more law students each of whom is a CBA/OBA member is pursuing a J.D. degree at an Ontario law school or registered as a student-at-law member of the Law Society of Ontario or registered as part of the Lawyer Licensing Process.  Application made in respect of a jointly-written paper needs to be made on consent of all the authors, each of whom must be eligible as outlined above.
  2. Jointly written submissions will be accepted if each of the authors consents and each author is eligible in accordance with paragraph 1 above.
  3. No applicant can make more than one submission.  If more than one is made, only the first submission will be considered.
  4. The written submission must be for either:
    1. a case comment on an insolvency-related case decided in the last two years and of interest to insolvency practitioners; or
    2. an article which addresses a topical and recent issue of interest to insolvency practitioners.
  5. The written submission should be no more than 1500 words.
  6. The deadline for the written submission is Friday, April 7, 2023, 5:00 pm.
  7. The Executive of the Insolvency Law Section of the OBA will select a winner of the Award by May 2023.
  8. The winner of the Award will attend at the Commercial List/OBA/OAIRP Education and Golf Retreat Day (TBA) and participate in the events of the day, at which time the Award will be presented.
  9. The winner’s written submission will be featured on the OBA Insolvency Law Section website.

Selection Process

The Selection Committee shall consider OBA policies, rules and guidelines on Diversity and Inclusion when selecting the winner of the Award.

Nomination Procedure Based on Criteria

Please attach a one or two pages summary of the reasons for nomination or paste the details within the text area below.

Submissions are due by Friday, April 7, 2023.

ONLINE SUBMISSION FORM

Matthew Harris, Chair, Insolvency Law Section,
c/o Faryal Mehboob
Ontario Bar Association
300-20 Toronto St.,
Toronto, ON M5C 2B8
P: (416) 869-1047 ext. 366
F: (416) 869-1390
E: mpun@oba.org

Past Winners

  • 2022- Anthony Labib
  • 2021 - Alexander William Overton
  • 2020 - Mandy Bedford
  • 2019 - Joshua Foster
  • 2018 - Nicholas Avis
  • 2017 - James Hardy
  • 2016 - Vanja Ginic
  • 2015 - Rachel Bengino & Mitchel Grossell
  • 2014 - Tori Crawford & Lee Nicholson