OCBA Legal Humor Column Contest

TWO WINNERS WILL BE SELECTED:

1. The best submission from an Affiliate Bar member (gain street cred for your bar association…)
2. The best at-large legal humor column

RULES:

• Contestants must be 18 years or older and reside in the United States. Longstanding OC Lawyer humor columnists may not apply.* Contestants do not need to be licensed attorneys.
• An individual contestant may submit up to three original entries.
• Submissions should be emailed to gialisa@gmail.com, cc: epalacios@ocbar.org, by September 5, 2025, as a Word document or Google document with the subject “LEGAL HUMOR COLUMN”.
• Each submission must be between 900 and 1800 words and must be an unpublished, original work by the author.
• Submitting an entry warrants that it is an original work, not written by AI, and indicates that you agree with the terms in the writer’s contract: https://www.ocbar.org/Portals/0/communications/ocl_writers/oclwriterscontract.pdf. Anonymous submissions will not be considered, but pen names will be considered.

JUDGING CRITERIA:
Submissions will be judged by members of the Editorial Advisory Committee based on

1. Whether the column made the reader giggle;
2. The objective standards of:
   1. the column concerns a legally relevant and current topic;
   2. the column conforms to the writer’s guidelines https://www.ocbar.org/Portals/0/communications/ocl_writers/articleguidelines.pdf (including avoiding profanity or overly editorial topics);
   3. the column follows generally accepted rules of grammar that are appropriate to the style of writing; and
   4. the column is written in a way that flows in a logical manner to be easily read and understood.

PRIZE:
The winning two entries will be published in an upcoming issue of the award-winning Orange County Lawyer Magazine. After publication, you will receive a complimentary high-resolution PDF of your published article (a $150 value) for you to circulate as desired.

Download the flyer here.