Fellows Awards
The Fellows are currently accepting nominations for the 2011 Fellows Awards. The submission deadline is October 1, 2010.
CLICK HERE to download a nomination form and instructions for submission.
CLICK HERE for a complete list of previous award recipients.
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.
*Prior to 2006, the Outstanding Service Award required fifty years of service.
2010 AWARD RECIPIENTS
The 2010 Fellows Awards were presented on Saturday, February 6, at the 54th Annual Fellows Awards Banquet at Isleworth Country Club in Windermere, Florida. Congratulations to this year's distinguished honorees:
2010 Outstanding Service Award Recipient
Brooksley E. Born
Washington, District of Columbia
This year's Outstanding Service Award was presented to Brooksley E. Born, a lawyer whose career epitomizes dedication to the highest principles and traditions of the legal profession and to the service of the public. Ms. Born is a retired partner of Arnold & Porter LLP, where she practiced for more than thirty years. She was head of the firm's derivatives practice and Chair of its Pro Bono Committee. From 1996 to 1999, Ms. Born was Chair of the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission, the federal agency that oversees futures and commodity option markets. During her tenure, she strongly advocated for federal regulation of the over-the-counter derivatives market. That unregulated market played significant role in the recent financial crisis.
Ms. Born has championed women's rights, civil rights and the rights of the indigent throughout her career. She is a founder of the ABA Women's Caucus and Chair of the Board of the National Women's Law Center. She has served on the Boards of the ABA, the ABF, ALI-ABA and the District of Columbia Bar. Ms. Born is a past Chair of a number of ABA entities, including the Section of Individual Rights and Responsibilities, the Standing Committee on Federal Judiciary and the Women's Caucus. She is the recipient of numerous awards recognizing her pubic service, including the Profile in Courage Award of the John F. Kennedy Library Foundation, the American Lawyer's Lifetime Achievement Award, and the Outstanding Public Interest Advocate of the Year Award of the National Association of Public Interest Law (now Equal Justice Works).
Ms. Born is a graduate of Stanford Law School where she was President of the Stanford Law Review and received the Outstanding Senior Award. She was a law clerk to Judge Henry W. Edgerton of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit. She is a Life Benefactor Fellow of the American Bar Foundation and serves as Chair of the Washington, D.C. Fellows.
2010 Outstanding Scholar Award Recipient
Professor Marc Galanter
Madison, Wisconsin
Marc Galanter is the John and Rylla Bosshard Professor Emeritus of Law and South Asian Studies at the University of Wisconsin - Madison and LSE Centennial Professor at the London School of Economics and Political Science. He is the author of a number of highly regarded and seminal studies on litigation and legal culture, including: "Why the 'Haves' Come Out Ahead: Speculations on the Limits of Legal Change" (1974), one of the most-cited articles in the legal literature; Tournament of Lawyers (with Thomas Palay, 1991), which is widely viewed as the most robust explanation of the growth and transformation of large law firms; and his latest book, Lowering the Bar: Lawyer Jokes and Legal Culture (2005). He is an outspoken critic of misrepresentations of the American civil justice system and of the inadequate knowledge base that makes the system so vulnerable to misguided attacks.
Professor Galanter is recognized as a leading American student of the Indian legal system. He is the author of Competing Equalities: Law and the Backward Classes in India (1984, 1991) and Law and Society in Modern India (1989, 1992). He is an Honorary Professor of the National Law School of India, served as advisor to the Ford Foundation on legal services and human rights programs in India, and was retained as an expert by the government of India in the litigation arising from the Bhopal disaster.
A preeminent figure in the empirical study of the legal system, Professor Galanter has been editor of the Law & Society Review, President of the Law and Society Association, Chair of the International Commission on Folk Law and Legal Pluralism, a Guggenheim Fellow, and a Fellow of the Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences. He is a member of the American Law Institute and a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. He received degrees in philosophy and law from the University of Chicago.
2010 Outstanding State Chair Award Recipient
Linda A. Klein
Atlanta, Georgia
The Fellows were delighted to honor Linda A. Klein of Georgia as the recipient of the 2010 Outstanding State Chair Award. Ms. Klein is managing shareholder of the Georgia offices of Baker, Donelson, Bearman, Caldwell & Berkowitz and a member of the firm's Board of Directors. Her practice includes contract law, construction law, fidelity and surety law, employment law and professional liability matters. Ms. Klein has served The Fellows as State Chair of Georgia since 2003. Under her extraordinary leadership, Georgia has elected more than 100 deserving new Fellows.
Ms. Klein has been recognized by Atlanta Magazine as a Georgia Super Lawyer and one of the Top 50 Women Lawyers in Georgia annually since 2004. Georgia Trend Magazine has named her one of the 100 most powerful and influential Georgians and one of Georgia's Legal Elite,. Ms. Klein is widely regarded as a trailblazer for women lawyers in her home state and around the country. In 2001, she was the first recipient of the Outstanding Woman in the Profession Achievement Award presented by the Atlanta Bar Association. In 2004, the ABA Commission on Women in the Profession honored her with the prestigious Margaret Brent Achievement Award. In 2009, she was the recipient of the Randolph Thrower Award for Lifetime Achievement and was named to the YWCA Academy of Women Achievers.
In 1997, Ms. Klein became the first woman to serve as President of the State Bar of Georgia. She served as Chair of the ABA Tort Trial and Insurance Practice Section from 2003 to 2004. She is the immediate past Chair of the Committee on Rules and Calendar of the ABA House of Delegates and Chair of the ABA Coalition for Justice. She is the current President of Southface Energy Institute, and a past President of both the Board of Directors' Network and the Caucus of State Bars. Ms. Klein is a past Chair of both the Institute for Continuing Legal Education in Georgia and the Lawyers Foundation of Georgia.