Young Practitioners' Award 

In 2017, as a 30th Anniversary initiative, IPEBLA announced the Young Practitioners’ Award.

The purpose of the award is to encourage Young Practitioners who practice or research in the field of pension and employee benefits law to explore issues of significance that have an international and/or comparative aspect. The person selected for the award is funded to attend the Biennial IPEBLA conference (on the basis of an economy return flight, 3 nights’ accommodation in the conference hotel and registration fees).

Requirements to enter:

• The person is a “Young Practitioner” (defined as “first 10 years of practice”, but not at the partner level)
• IPEBLA membership (see the initiative for Young Practitioners below);
• Submission of a paper of between 3000-5000 words (excluding footnotes or endnotes) that addresses an issue of pensions or employee benefits law and explores comparative or international aspects of the issue; and

A panel appointed by the IPEBLA Steering Committee will review all papers submitted and will determine which author will be selected for the award.

All papers recommended by the selection panel will also be published in a special edition of the IPEBLA journal – the “International Pension Lawyer”.

The 2019 Young Practitioners' Award:

The recipient of the 2019 Young Practitioners' Award was Camille M. Castro, Senior Associate PBGC Participant and Plan Sponsor Advocate at Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation (PBGC) in Washington, DC.

The 2017 Young Practitioners' Award:

The recipient of the 2017 Young Practitioners' Award was Jessica Spence, Legal Counsel at Financial Services Commission of Ontario in Toronto, ON, Canada.