By Sean Conway '09
Contributor

Third-year student Winn Allen and second-year Matt Nicholson received two of the Law School’s most prestigious academic honors after earning the highest academic averages in their respective graduating classes.

Allen received the Jackson Walker L.L.P. Award, given to the Law School student with the highest grade point average after completing four semesters of coursework. Nicholson won the Carl M. Franklin Award, which honors the student with the highest average after two semesters.

The recipients’ names have been added to plaques displayed in Hunton & Williams Hall. Both winners also receive a cash stipend, but, as Nicholson noted, “[t]he Franklin Award is $200 more [than the Jackson Walker Award], and only half the work.”

“It would be hard to think of two more talented students here at UVA,” said Professor A.E. Dick Howard, who has had both award winners as students. “Both Winn and Matt succeed in being exceptional legal scholars while also being involved in the world around them.”

Allen, an Atlanta native who graduated from Georgetown University, is an articles editor for the Virginia Law Review. He spent last summer at Williams and Connolly in Washington, D.C. and next year plans to clerk for Judge Jeffrey S. Sutton of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit in Columbus, Ohio.

“It was deeply humbling to win this award,” said Allen. “I’m sure it came down to 50% hard work and 50% luck.”

“Winn is a hardworking guy who is both smart and generous with his talents,” added third-year law student Andrew Bosse, also an articles editor for the Virginia Law Review. “He is someone Virginia Law will be proud of in the future.”

Nicholson grew up in Tallahassee, Florida, and earned his bachelor’s degree here at the University of Virginia. He is the president of the Raven Society, the oldest honorary society at UVA, and is a member of the Virginia Law Review. Last summer he performed research under Professor Howard for a project examining the influence of American constitutional ideas abroad. He has already accepted an offer from Williams and Connolly in Washington, D.C. for next summer.

“It’s a big honor to have my name put on that plaque given what some of the past winners have gone on to do in their careers,” said Nicholson. “It’s a bit intimidating.”

“Matt exemplifies what UVA Law is all about,” said second year law student James Nelson, Nicholson’s roommate for the past three semesters. “He is intelligent, he is friendly and outgoing, and, most of all, he is deeply invested in the intellectual life of the Law School.”

The Jackson Walker L.L.P. Award was established in 1989 by the Texas-based law firm of the same name. The Franklin Award was established in 1998 by Carl M. Franklin ’48, Vice-President Emeritus and Professor of Law at the University of Southern California.

Previous winners of the Jackson Walker L.L.P. Award include current and former UVA Law professors Elizabeth Magill and Toby Heytens. Heytens was also the first Franklin Award recipient.