ND Law 3L Jack Ferguson receives University of Chicago Federalist Society Eaton Award

Jack Ferguson, a third-year student at Notre Dame Law School, received the third annual Eaton Award from the University of Chicago Federalist Society on April 25.

Recipients of the Eaton Award, a national legal writing competition designed to encourage new scholarship in constitutional law, are selected by a panel of law professors. Ferguson’s winning essay, "Stipulating the Law of Agency Independence," offers insights into how courts should respond to stipulated law that arguably creates constitutional questions, drawing from the case SEC v. Jarkesy.

Ferguson presented his paper at the University of Chicago Law School during the award ceremony. Professor William Baude and Professor Todd Henderson, both of the University of Chicago Law School, also gave remarks on the paper.

Originally from Washington D.C., Ferguson received his undergraduate degree from the University of Notre Dame. Before attending law school he spent a year as a staffer in the U.S. Senate.

Ferguson has served as a staff editor and senior editor for the Notre Dame Law Review. He spent his first-year summer as a judicial intern for Judge Carl J. Nichols on the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, and his second-year summer as a summer associate in the Washington, D.C. office of Kirkland & Ellis. Ferguson is also a Polking Family Fellow through the de Nicola Center for Ethics and Culture.

After graduation, Ferguson will clerk for Judge John B. Nalbandian on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit.

More information about the 2024 Eaton Award is available on the University of Chicago Federalist Society’s website.