Orr Post-Doctoral Writing Competition in Legal Medicine

The Orr Writing Competition is an annual competition sponsored by the American College of Legal Medicine (ACLM) that provides an opportunity for any post-doctoral attorney or health professional enrolled in full-time studies in the United States or Canada to present their research on topics related to legal medicine.

The Orr Award is awarded to the author of the outstanding original postdoctoral paper on legal medicine. The Orr Award is named after Dr. Daniel L. Orr II, DDS, PhD, JD, MD, a distinguished legal medicine expert and ACLM Past President. The award recognizes Dr. Orr’s contributions to the field of legal medicine and his commitment to educating future generations of medical-legal professionals.

Eligible authors: All eligible authors must have previously received a doctoral degree (MD, DO, DDS, DMD, DPM, DVM, JD, PhD, PharmD, etc.) or the equivalent from an accredited institution and must be currently enrolled in a post-doctoral program in the United States or Canada.

Entries meeting the following criteria will be considered for the Orr Award:

• Each entry must be submitted by the deadline in the requested format, submitted by the deadline, and submitted by email at the designated email address.
• Submissions may address any aspect of legal medicine, including healthcare law, medical licensure, regulation of the profession, business aspects of medical practice, liability of physicians, hospitals, and managed care organizations, ethics, biopharmaceutical and medical device regulation, public health law, legal issues in physician-patient relationships, food and drug law, regulation of clinical research, forensic science, or the history of legal medicine.
• Submissions must be the entirely original work of the individual submitting author.
• Submissions may have been used for academic credit but must not have been submitted for publication.
• The author may not have a financial interest directly or indirectly in the material presented

1. There is no word count limit, but submissions under 25,000 words, including footnotes, are preferred.
2. The first page is the cover page with the author’s name and contact information and a telephone number, email address and the name of the author’s school. It should have the title “2025 Post-Doctoral Writing Competition” and the final word count.
3. At the top of page # 2 and onwards the author must place the title of the paper in all capitals.
4. If an author wishes to acknowledge an individual or institution, then this can be done on the cover page.
5. The author may not have a financial interest directly or indirectly in the material presented and must disclose any other financial conflicts on the last page of the document.
6. All papers must be submitted in MS Word or Google Doc format using 12-point Times New Roman font, double-spaced, and with one-inch margins. All citations must be footers in 10-point Times New Roman font and single-spaced. All pages must be numbered.

Deadline: Wednesday, January 15, 2025 at 11:59 pm is the deadline for submission of papers.

Submit by email: Papers must be sent by email to info@aclm.org

The ACLM 2025 Annual Conference is scheduled to take place at the Hilton University of Houston from February 28 to March 2, 2025, at which time the Orr Award presentation will take place.

• The writer of the winning paper will be presented the Orr Award and will receive $1,000.00, round trip economy airfare to Houston, one-night hotel accommodations during the conference, and conference registration to attend the ACLM 2025 Annual Conference where they will have an opportunity to present the paper, receive the award, and meet with experts in the field of legal medicine. The winning paper will be published in The Journal of Legal Medicine, and all other papers entered for the Orr Award will receive consideration for publication in The Journal of Legal Medicine.

  The second-place winner will receive $500.00.

  The third-place winner will receive $250.00.

  The top three winners will receive complimentary one-year membership in the American College of Legal Medicine and will be invited to serve on the 2026 Student Awards Committee.

All submitted papers preferably must not be submitted for publication in a journal or law review until they are released back to the author. The release of papers will be completed by email from the ACLM to the author by March 30, 2025.

ACLM 2025-Orr Post Doc Writing Competition

Please direct all questions to info@aclm.org.