FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. – Law students, Annie Kate Lipscomb and David Lee have won the 2020 Kaitlin LaBuda Award and 2020 Arent Fox/Dale Bumpers Excellence in Writing Award, respectively. Both honors recognize outstanding contributions to the Journal of Food Law and Policy in the School of Law.

The Kaitlin LaBuda Award is given to a journal candidate who serves as inspiration to others on the journal — cheerfully spurring their colleagues on to good work. The award's namesake was a student and a Journal of Food Law and Policy candidate who died during her second year of law school. She was known for her dedication to the journal, enthusiasm and ability to inspire her colleagues.

Lipscomb is entering her third year of law school and will continue with the journal as its 2020-21 note and comment editor. She is from Rogers and spent the summer of 2019 as an extern for the Hon. Kristine Baker, United States District Court of the Eastern District of Arkansas. Lipscomb earned a Bachelor of Arts from the University of Arkansas Fulbright College of Arts and Sciences.

The Excellence in Writing Award was established in honor of former Arkansas Gov. and U.S. Sen. Dale Bumpers. The Arent Fox law firm selects one article from the those prepared by the journal's staff editors. Lee's article "Organic Waste Bans: Beyond the Compost Heap" will be published in a forthcoming issue of the journal, and the honor includes a monetary award.

Lee is entering his third year of law school and will continue with the journal as a 2020-21 Editorial Board member. Raised in Fayetteville, he earned a Bachelor of Arts from Missouri State University and a Master of Arts in Cross-Cultural Ministry from Dallas Theological Seminary.

Bumpers became counsel at the Arent Fox, then known as Arent Fox Kintner Plotkin and Kahn, in its Washington, D.C., office following his retirement from the senate in 1999. He represented a wide range of clients spanning the medical, food and airline industries while with the firm from 2000-10. The firm, founded in 1942, now has approximately 400 attorneys in offices in Los Angeles, New York, San Francisco and Washington, D.C. It has given the annual writing award since the journal's inception and continued to honor the journal's students after Bumpers' death in 2016.

The Journal of Food Law and Policy has long been recognized as a leader in publishing articles and essays on food law and its impact on society. When the journal's inaugural issue was published in 2005, no other student-edited journal was devoted to this important topic and few law schools recognized the emerging discipline of food law and policy. Since that time, the journal has led the nation in recognizing the significance of studying the legal framework of our food system. It is published twice a year and is edited by dedicated law students at the University of Arkansas School of Law.