Nominations for the Harper Lee Prize for Legal Fiction will close Friday. The University of Alabama School of Law and the American Bar Association Journal sponsor the prize.
According to the School of Law’s website, the prize will be awarded to the book that best examines lawyers’ role in society. The winner will be recognized in Washington, D.C., during the Library of Congress National Book Festival in September.
Created to commemorate Harper Lee’s novel “To Kill a Mockingbird,” the prize was announced in conjunction with the University’s 50th Anniversary Celebration of the book at the School of Law.
“‘To Kill a Mockingbird’ has a deep and abiding connection with the University of Alabama School of Law,” School of Law Dean Ken Randall said at the 50th Anniversary Celebration in October. “Harper Lee studied law here before leaving to become a writer.
“I’d like to think her clarity of focus and her appreciation of the role of law in society…were informed by her legal studies here,” he said.
All entries must be a book-length work of fiction but do not have to focus on the Alabama or American legal system. The prize will be awarded to whichever entry “best exemplifies the ability of lawyers to effect change in society,” according to the School of Law website.
“No work of literature before or since has had a comparable impact on our profession,” Randall said. “‘To Kill a Mockingbird’ is, by a large margin, the most frequently cited influence on all lawyers around the world, of all generations, any time you ask them.”
Rebecca Walden, communications director for the law school, said the competition is not just for the 50th anniversary.
“This is the first year for the prize, but we will award the prize annually,” Walden said.
Lee has authorized the prize but will not be a part of the selection committee, Walden said. A panel of judges has been organized, including CNN senior analyst Jeffrey Toobin and Morris Dees, attorney and founder of the Southern Poverty Law Center.
“[‘To Kill a Mockingbird’s’] influence on my decision to take up civil rights law was profound,” Dees wrote in an article titled “What To Kill a Mockingbird Means to Me.”
Along with Toobin and Dees, former American Bar Association president Robert R. Gray, Jr., and former lawyers and novelists Linda Fairstein and David Baldacci will make up the selection committee.
After the selection committee decides on three finalists, the results will be posted on the ABA Journal website for the public to vote on their favorite. The public vote will be considered during the final selection, and the overall winner will be announced in July.
