Fellows Awards
The Fellows of the American Bar Foundation is pleased to annouce this year's Fellows Awards Honorees. The 2012 Fellows Awards will be presented on Saturday, February 4th, at the 56th Annual Fellows Awards Banquet at The World War II Musuem, New Orleans, Louisiana. Please scroll down to read more about this year's distinguished honorees.
We are now accepting nominations for the 2013 Fellows Awards. Please click here to download a nomination form. Below you will find a description of each award.
For a complete list of previous Fellows Award recipients, click here.
If you have any questions, contact us at gro.nfba@swollef or (800) 292-5065.
FELLOWS AWARDS
Outstanding Service Award
The Fellows shall, on an annual basis, select a Fellow for the Outstanding Service Award, who has, in his or her professional career, adhered for more than thirty years* to the highest principles and traditions of the legal profession and to the service of the public.
Outstanding Scholar Award
The Fellows shall, on an annual basis, select a person, not necessarily a Fellow, for the Outstanding Scholar Award, who has engaged in outstanding scholarship in the law or in government.
Outstanding State Chair Award
The Fellows Officers shall, on an annual basis, select a current State Chair for the Outstanding State Chair Award, who has demonstrated a dedication to the work of the Foundation and the mission of The Fellows through exceptional efforts on behalf of The Fellows at the state level.
Distiguished Honoray Fellow
The Distinguished Honorary Fellow Award will be given from time to time to an Honorary Fellow in recognition of a lifetime of sustained and significant professional achievement and public service. Conferral of the Award is conditioned upon the recipient’s agreement to attend the Award presentation ceremony.
*Prior to 2006, the Outstanding Service Award required fifty years of service.
2012 AWARD RECIPIENTS
Outstanding Service Award--
Senator David H. Gambrell, Atlanta, Georgia
David Gambrell is a lifelong resident of Atlanta, Georgia. Except for the years 1954-55 when he was employed as a Teaching Fellow at Harvard Law School, he has been a practicing attorney in the State of Georgia since 1952. He was a founding partner of the firm of Gambrell & Stolz, and specialized in trial and business law. In 2007, Gambrell & Stolz merged with and became the Atlanta office of the national law firm, Baker, Donelson, Bearman, Caldwell & Berkowitz, P.C. David Gambrell continues as Senior Counsel of Baker Donelson.
During his terms as President of the Atlanta Bar Association and the State Bar of Georgia, he was a leader in the modernization of Georgia's court system, providing for uniform court procedures and the merit selection of judges. He was recognized in 2002 by the State Bar of Georgia with its Distinguished Service Award, and in 2007 by the Atlanta Bar with its Leadership Award.
David Gambrell was a founding member of the ABA Section of Litigation, and served as the Section's delegate to the ABA House of Delegates. He also served on the Board of Editors of the ABA Journal and on the Board of the National Legal Aid and Defender Association where he participated in obtaining the approval of the ABA Board of Governors and House of Delegates for the formation of the National Legal Service Corporation. Later, as a U. S. Senator, he was an active co-sponsor of the legislation which created the Legal Service Corporation.
In early 1971, following the death of Georgia's Senator Richard B. Russell, Governor Jimmy Carter appointed David Gambrell to fill that vacancy in the United States Senate. During his two years in the Senate, Gambrell took a lead in measures seeking reconciliation of differences between the South and other regions of the country, and in fostering fiscal and economic responsibility on the part of the federal government. After returning to private life, he continued the practice of law and his involvement in public and civic affairs. He served, by appointment of Governor George Busbee, as Chairman of the Governor's Commission on Post-Secondary Education in Georgia, and has served as a Member of the Visiting Committees of Harvard Law School, Davidson College and Emory University.
Outstanding Scholar Award--
Joan C. Williams, San Francisco, California
Joan C. Williams has played a central role in reshaping the debates over women’s advancement for over 25 years. Called "something of a rock star” by The New York Times, Williams has won both the American Bar Association (ABA) Foundation's Distinguished Scholar Award (2011) and the ABA’s Margaret Brent Award for Women Lawyers of Achievement (2006). In recognition of her interdisciplinary work, Williams gave the 2008 Massey Lectures in American Civilization at Harvard University, delivered in prior years by (among others) Eudora Welty, Gore Vidal, and Toni Morrison.
Williams, who is Distinguished Professor of Law and Hastings Foundation Chair at University of California, Hastings College of the Law, has authored or co-authored six books and over seventy law review articles, including one article listed in 1996 as one of the most cited law review articles ever written. Her work has been excerpted in casebooks on six different subjects.
Williams’ work on second-generation gender issues was recognized in 2004 by the Distinguished Publication Award of the Association for Women in Psychology. Her work has been recognized by the award of two National Science Foundation (NSF) grants totaling nearly $1 million. The trainings and best practices Williams produced with NSF support have been disseminated throughout the country to help employers advance and retain women in science, technology, math and engineering.
Williams also has played a central role in the legal profession. She co-founded the Project for Attorney Retention (PAR), a national membership organization that develops science-based best practices to help legal employers advance and retain women. Through PAR, Williams developed the best-practice work-life policies now in use in law firms and legal departments throughout the country. She co-wrote the ABA Commission on Women’s Fair Measure: Toward Effective Attorney Evaluations (2008), which details a performance evaluation system that controls for implicit bias. In 2010, she co-wrote the widely influential joint PAR-MCCA report, The Impact of Law Firm Compensation Systems on Women, which details best practices to eliminate the effect of implicit bias on law firm compensation systems.
Outstanding State Chair Award--
Michael H. Byowitz, New York, New York
Michael Byowitz is a partner with Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz focusing his practice on antitrust law and policy, and principally advising multinational corporations on major domestic and international mergers, acquisitions, joint ventures and corporate takeovers. He represents clients at the Department of Justice, the Federal Trade Commission, and State Attorneys General in the United States and also consults on investigations by antitrust authorities in the European Union, the United Kingdom, Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, Colombia, Mexico, Venezuela and many other countries.
Mr. Byowitz writes articles on antitrust issues and is a contributor to many legal publications. He is a frequent speaker on antitrust law and compliance in the U.S. and abroad. Mr. Byowitz is consistently ranked among leading antitrust specialists in peer review rankings (e.g., Global Competition Review, Who’s Who Legal, Super Lawyers, Chambers). Mr. Byowitz recently received the Lifetime Achievement Award from the American Bar Association Section of International Law.
Before joining Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz in 1983, Mr. Byowitz served as a Senior Trial Attorney, Antitrust Division, U.S. Department of Justice.
Mr. Byowitz represents the 24,000 members of the American Bar Association’s Section of International Law in the ABA House of Delegates (member of House of Delegates Committee on Issues of Significance to the Legal Profession). He has served as Chair of the ABA International Law Section in 2005-2006, and is a former Chair of three of the Section’s Divisions (including Business Regulation and Public International Law), he is also former Chair of the Section’s International Antitrust Law Committee, and present Co-Chair of its International Pro Bono Committee.
Mr. Byowitz is a member of the Executive Committee of the New York City Bar and Chaired the City Bar’s subcommittee evaluating Elena's Kagan qualifications to serve on the U.S. Supreme Court. He served as Chair of the City Bar’s Council on International Affairs (2006-2009) and as Chair of its Antitrust & Trade Regulation Committee (1998-2001). He is New York State Co-Chair of the Fellows of the American Bar Foundation and is an honorary lifetime member of AIJA (the International Young Lawyers Association).
Sharon Stern Gerstman, Buffalo, New York
Sharon Stern Gerstman is counsel to the law firm of Magavern Magavern Grimm LLP. She concentrates in the areas of mediation and arbitration.
Ms. Gerstman received her A.B. from Brown University, her J.D. from University of Pittsburgh, and her LL.M. from Yale Law School. She has taught in the law schools of University of Toledo, University of Missouri-Kansas City, and University at Buffalo, where she continues to teach New York Practice. She is the author of numerous law review articles, is a co-author of New York Civil Practice (James Publishing), and is on the editorial board of Weinstein Korn and Miller, New York Civil Practice: CPLR.
In addition to law school teaching, Ms. Gerstman’s professional experience includes 29 years of service as Court Attorney/Referee and Principal Law Clerk in New York State Supreme Court, where her primary responsibility was mediating civil cases to settlement. She is admitted to practice in all of the state courts in New York and Pennsylvania and before the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit.
Ms. Gerstman has served on the Board of Governors of the American Bar Association and continues to serve in its House of Delegates and on the Council of its Government and Public Sector Lawyers Division. She has served on the Executive Committee of the New York State Bar Association and continues to serve in its House of Delegates and on the Executive Committee of the Torts, Insurance and Compensation Law Section. She is a past director of the Bar Association of Erie County and a past president of the Erie County Bar Foundation and of the Women Lawyers of Western New York. She has received numerous awards from various bar associations and is a life fellow of the American Bar Foundation and of the New York State Bar Foundation.
Distinguished Honorary Fellow Award--
Justice Antonin Scalia
Antonin Scalia, Associate Justice, was born in Trenton, New Jersey, on March 11, 1936. He married Maureen McCarthy in 1960 and has nine children – Ann Forrest, Eugene, John Francis, Catherine Elisabeth, Mary Clare, Paul David, Matthew, Christopher James, and Margaret Jane. He received an A.B. in 1957 from Georgetown University and the University of Fribourg, Switzerland, an LL.B. in 1960 from Harvard Law School, and was a Sheldon Fellow of Harvard University from 1960-1961. He was in private practice in Cleveland, Ohio, from 1961-1967, and served as Professor of Law at the University of Virginia from 1967-1971, as Professor of Law at the University of Chicago from 1977- 1982, and as Visiting Professor of Law at both Georgetown University and Stanford University. He served as Chairman of the American Bar Association’s Section of Administrative Law from 1981-1982 and its Conference of Section Chairmen from 1982- 1983. He served as General Counsel of the Office of Telecommunications Policy from 1971-1972, as Chairman of the Administrative Conference of the United States from 1972-1974, and as Assistant Attorney General for the Office of Legal Counsel from 1974-1977. He served as a Judge on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit in 1982. Nominated as an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States by President Reagan, he assumed that office on September 26, 1986.