Announcing the Winners of the 2019 Student Essay Competition

The Stanford Law Review is pleased to announce the winners of our first annual Student Essay Competition. This year’s competition topic was youth and the law. The winners are:

  • Justin W. Aimonetti & Christian Talley, both of the University of Virginia School of Law J.D. Class of 2020, for Game Changer: Why and How Congress Should Preempt State Student-Athlete Compensation Regimes.
  • Erin E. O’Neill, Georgetown University Law Center J.D. Class of 2020, for Influencing the Future: Compensating Children in the Age of Social-Media Influencer Marketing.

Justin Aimonetti and Christian Talley’s Essay discusses recent state efforts to allow college athletes to profit off their image and likeness, arguing that Congress should preempt competing state regulations with comprehensive national legislation.

Justin Aimonetti will earn his J.D. from the University of Virginia School of Law in May 2020. He will also be receiving an M.A. in legal history from the University of Virginia in May 2020. At UVA Law, Justin serves as an Articles Editor on the Virginia Law Review. He is also a member of the law school’s Supreme Court Litigation Clinic. Justin will be spending this upcoming summer with the Department of Justice’s Office of Legal Counsel. He will then begin a clerkship on the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals. Justin received his B.A. cum laude in history and political science from Columbia University.

Christian Talley will earn his J.D. from the University of Virginia School of Law in May 2020. He serves as a Notes & Comments Editor on the Virginia Law Review, a research assistant for Professor Saikrishna Prakash, and a Legal Writing Fellow for first-year law students. After graduating, he will clerk on the District Court for the District of Columbia and on the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals. Christian received a master’s degree in U.S. history, with distinction, from Oxford University, and a B.A. in history, magna cum laude and with highest honors, from Vanderbilt University.

Erin E. O’Neill’s Essay analyzes how states can regulate the child-centric content that social-media influencers post online for money, as well as how states can compensate those children for their lost privacy. Erin is a J.D. candidate at Georgetown University Law Center. While at Georgetown, she has served as a co-Managing Editor of The Georgetown Law Journal. She has also been a clinical student in the Appellate Courts Immersion Clinic, a teaching assistant for Georgetown’s Computer Programming for Lawyers course, and a research assistant for Professor Mary Hartnett. She received a B.S. in Business and a B.A. in Spanish from Virginia Tech, and an M.S. in Education from Johns Hopkins University. Before law school, she taught high school through Teach For America.

The two winning Essays have been published in the Stanford Law Review Online, which is available on major databases such as Westlaw and Hein. Each of the winners have also been awarded a $300 cash prize. Both Essays were selected through an anonymous review process that considered the novelty of the piece and its contribution to existing scholarship, clarity and writing style, support from citations, and interest to a generalist audience.

Please read on to explore the two winning Essays.

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2019 Student Essay Competition Winner

Influencing the Future

Compensating Children in the Age of Social-Media Influencer Marketing
by  Erin E. O'Neill  

In the age of smartphones, parents frequently take photos and videos of their children—even mundane moments are easy to share with friends and family. But what happens when these photos and videos are made public for any social-media user to see? This Essay proposes ways in which states can regulate online child-centric content by mom-influencers.

Volume 72 (2019-2020)

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2019 Student Essay Competition Winner

Game Changer

Why and How Congress Should Preempt State Student-Athlete Compensation Regimes
by  Justin W. Aimonetti & Christian Talley  

In September 2019, California enacted the Fair Pay to Play Act, a groundbreaking piece of legislation that allows college athletes to profit off their name, image, and likeness. This Essay contends that congressional legislation should expressly preempt competing state regulations, thus restoring national uniformity in college sports. An express preemption provision would both avoid judicial uncertainty about the law’s preemptive scope and ensure a level playing field.

Volume 72 (2019-2020)