Newton, MA—Boston College Law School is pleased to announce that students Soyoung Yoon and Ryan Mclaughlin have each been awarded the “MATA Oustanding Student Contribution Award” for significant contributions made while working with the Massachusetts Academy of Trial Attorneys (MATA) Amicus Committee.

Yoon and Mclaughlin each provided the MATA Amicus Committee with draft amicus briefs for cases that were of particular concern to MATA.

Yoon completed a draft amicus brief for Case of Sikorski, where an injured high school teacher sought workers compensation benefits.

By “honing in on the policy implications of the decision,” Yoon’s draft “provided the framework for the final brief and was instrumental in conveying to the Justices that the case was as much about education as it was about workers compensation,” says Paul Dullea, Executive Director of MATA.

Mclaughlin was assigned the case Papadopoulos v. Target Corporation, urging the abandonment of the “natural accumulation” rule in snow and ice injury cases.

Mclaughlin’s “extensive research and comprehensive review of out-of-state case law…formed the basis for an important component of MATA'S brief describing to the court the universal acceptance of the reasonable care standard…throughout New England,” says Dullea.

Yoon and Mclaughlin will be recognized for their work at MATA’s Annual Meeting on May 12th at the Newton Marriott.

MATA is a voluntary, non-profit, state-wide professional association of attorneys in Massachusetts. For more information on MATA, you can go to their website at http://www.massacademy.com/MA/index.cfm.