Announcing Winners of the FairShake Consumer Protection Pre-Law Scholarship

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Thank you to all of the students who submitted essays for our inaugural scholarship.

The purpose of this scholarship is to raise students’ awareness and interest in the importance of consumer protection law and advocacy in day-to-day life. We were pleased to have a very strong batch of essays to choose from, discussing consumer rights in relation to topics ranging from smart speakers to fast fashion.

While we originally intended to award two scholarships, we ended up in the situation of awarding four partial awards across two different broad topics. This reflects the high quality of submissions we received.

The awarded essays, and those receiving honorable mention, can be read at the links below.

Topic 1: Consumer rights for the undocumented community

• Brent Murphy of Temple University wrote on the need to provide tenant protections to undocumented immigrants who risk having their immigration status used against them by unscrupulous landlords.
• Abraham Sandoval-Iniguez of the University of Pennsylvania wrote on the need for greater data use disclosures and consent requirements for information that might end up in the hands of immigration enforcement agencies.

Topic 2: Protecting consumers’ online privacy

• Andrew Arrington of Georgia Tech wrote on the need for more states to take comprehensive steps along the lines of Europe’s GDPR and the California Consumer Privacy Act.
• Dana Craig of the University of Wisconsin-Madison wrote on the potential benefits of requiring standardized summaries for data privacy notices.

Honorable mention:

• Gabriella Badmus of Vanderbilt University wrote on ways to improve the burden of wading through the morass of terms and conditions in a typical car rental contract.
• Sumona Gupta of the University of Alabama wrote on the need for greater oversight of utility monopolies.
• Evan Ipock of Hunter College wrote on the potential benefits of labor and environmental certifications to combat harms created by “fast fashion.”
• Mikhail Nolan of University of Phoenix wrote on the need to better regulate privacy concerns around “Smart Speakers” like Amazon Echo and Google Home.

Are you an undergraduate interested in applying for the FairShake Consumer Protection Pre-Law Scholarship?

We are now accepting applications for the next round. For more details, see the application page here.