April 26, 2013- Laura Adams ’12 has been named a 2013 Burton
Award for Distinguished Legal Writing recipient for her article
“Reconsidering Spoliation Doctrine through the Lens of Tort Law.”
Laura is the fourth Temple Law student to be recognized with a
Burton Award in the last five years.
The article, which discusses the changing nature of spoliation
in the Information Age and recommends a new approach based on tort
theory for determining whether to sanction destruction of evidence,
is also finding an audience among practitioners. Thanks to the
efforts of adjunct professor David Kessler, Laura’s work has been
circulated among the members of the Advisory Committee for the
Federal Rules on Civil Practice, which has recently proposed an
amendment to Rule 37 (e) that would create a national standard
regarding the culpability that warrants sanctions for spoliation.
If accepted, the amended rule would represent one of the most
significant changes to the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure in
twenty years.
The Burton Awards for Legal Achievement is a nonprofit program
associated with the Library of Congress. Only fifteen student
authors in the nation are recognized by the Burton Awards each
year. Winners are invited to receive their awards at an event
in Washington, D.C.