The Best Brief Competition is an annual event that recognizes outstanding legal writing by first-year students. The Legal Analysis, Advocacy, and Writing (LAAW) faculty select the best briefs written by their students for the spring semester trial brief assignment. The winner is chosen in a two-step process, first by a panel of Wisconsin attorneys and then by a panel of law school faculty.
For the Spring 2025 Best Brief Competition, the LAAW professors chose 20 students' trial briefs. The semi-finalists are Yasmeen Asfoor, Justin Barham, Mikayla Bird, Ellie Dellenbach, Conor Green, Isabelle Hoffman, Alyssa Laufenberg, Ariel Leykin, Prescott E. Miller, Lucia Pechloff, Leslie Rapp, Eric Roman-Binhammer, Will Schwegel, Erin Seifert, Emily Smith, Sarah Stout, Dallas Tilley, Lillian VanHandel, Charlie Wied, and Stella Yang Zhang.
Congratulations to this year's Best Brief semi-finalists!
Recent Winners
2024 Best Brief Winners - Andrew Reed and Kaitlyn Spiegl
For the first time in the competition's 22-year history, two briefs tied for first place.


Winner Kaitlyn Spiegl, Class of 2026, and Dean Daniel Tokaji.
2023 Best Brief Winner - Amber Renee Quinlan
LRW I Professor Andrew Norman, LRW II Professor Ashby Fox, Winner Amber Renee Quinlan, Class of 2025, and Dean Daniel Tokaji.
2022 Best Brief Winner - Nicholas Surprise
LR&W II Professor Ashby Fox, Winner Nicholas Surprise, Class of 2024, and Dean Daniel Tokaji. (Not pictured: LRW I Professor Kim Peterson.)
2021 Best Brief Winner - Jacob Aaron Neeley
Dean Daniel Tokaji, Winner Jacob Aaron Neeley, Class of 2023, and LR&W II Professor Ashby Fox. (Not pictured: LRW I Professor Alison Stites.)