Cornell Law School student Nicholas A. Dorsey '09 has won the 2008 Judge Bernard S. Meyer Scholarship for writing a winning legal essay.

The award, funded by the law firm of Meyer, Suozzi, English & Klein, P.C., (Garden City) and administered by the New York Bar Foundation, is available to second-year law students in a New York state law school. Dorsey's essay on the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 (ADA) was honored for its legal scholarship and the author's innovative models explaining disability as a social concept.

"This essay contest allows the firm to encourage excellence in legal writing and advocacy among future members of our profession while honoring Judge Meyer for his outstanding work and dedication to the law," said Lois Carter Schlissel, managing attorney for the Garden City law firm.

In his essay Dorsey shows that the text, legislative history as well as policy behind the ADA require mandatory reassignment.

Dorsey was an honors fellow in the Lawyering Program at Cornell and is now a note editor for the Cornell Law Review. He has received several honors while at the law school, including: the Center for Computer-Assisted Legal Instruction Award in Lawyering, the Fredric H. Weisberg Prize for Constitutional Law, and the Kasowitz Prize for Excellence in Legal Writing and Oral Advocacy.

Dorsey will apply the Meyer scholarship toward tuition expenses.

Bernard Meyer was an associate judge of the New York Court of Appeals from 1979 to 1986 and practiced with Meyer Suozzi from 1987 until his death in 2005. He served as special deputy attorney general of New York in charge of the Special Attica Investigation and was a member of the Governor's Commission on Integrity in Government.