Law360 Contributor Wins Burton Award

The Burton Foundation has honored Davis Polk & Wardwell's Linda Chatman Thomsen with a Burton Award for her article published by Law360 about Enron and the difficulty of prosecuting financial crimes.

Thomsen, former director of enforcement at the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, won the prestigious legal writing prize for "Enron: 10 Years Later," which studies the enforcement scorecard for the fraud cases and tempers calls to prosecute over the 2008 financial crisis.

"It is hard to believe a decade has passed since the Enron saga began, and looking back at the prosecutorial history of this remarkable law enforcement story was a fascinating exercise — particularly against the background of enforcement efforts related to the recent financial crisis," Thomsen said.

The Burton Awards program is run in association with the Library of Congress and focuses on excellence in legal writing from partners and counsel at leading law firms.

Thomsen is among a group of 35 attorneys to receive this year's Legal Writing Award. Other recipients hail from Covington & Burling, Linklaters, Proskauer Rose, and Skadden, among other firms.

"It's an honor to be recognized for this piece by an organization so esteemed as the Burton Foundation, and truly humbling to be included among such an impressive group of lawyers," Thomsen said.

Thomsen contributed the prize-winning article to Law360 for publication through our Expert Analysis program, a popular forum for legal practitioners and scholars to address emerging issues in case law, regulation, and legislation.

The 13th annual Burton Awards ceremony will be held at the Library of Congress on Monday, June 11.