Twelve Michigan students were honored at the 27th Annual Michigan Lawyers Auxiliary and State Bar of Michigan Law Day Essay Contest on April 30, 1999 at the Holiday Inn South in Lansing. Michigan Attorney General Jennifer M. Granholm was the featured luncheon guest speaker.

Sixth grade winners were: Abigail Ott, (first-place winner) Peace Lutheran (Saginaw) followed by second- through fourth-place winners from The Gagie School (Kalamazoo) Brent W. Grabowski, Sameed Shaikah, and Evelyn Hall.

The Gagie School took the top three places in the seventh grade division with Natasha Pattanshetti finishing first followed by Kathryn Quinn Kelpin and Emily Leeburg. Johanna Franzen, from Escanaba Junior High, was fourth.

Eighth grade essay winners were: Douglas A. Schrock (first-place winner), Centreville Junior High School, followed by Meredith Tucker, from Escanaba Junior High School, in second. Michael Titus and Laura Mead, both from Holy Name Central Grade School in Escanaba, finished third and fourth.

The Crystal Apple Teacher of the Year Award was presented to Carol Stoddard from South Middle School in Kalamazoo.

Bar associations, schools and community groups across Michigan and throughout the nation celebrated the freedoms they enjoy under the Constitution during Law Week. Law Day was established in 1958 by President Dwight Eisenhower to reserve "a special day of celebration by the American people in appreciation of their liberties and to provide an occasion for rededication to the ideals of equality and justice under laws."