ABA Associate Executive Director and Director of the ABA Center for Professional Responsibility (CPR) for more than 30 years, Jeanne P. Gray is honored posthumously with the 2014 Michael Franck Award. A native of Massachusetts, she received her J.D. degree from the New England School of Law in Boston. Following law school she served as Assistant Bar Counsel to the Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts where she investigated and prosecuted lawyer disciplinary matters at the state and federal level and engaged in private practice concentrating in business and corporate law.

Jeanne joined the American Bar Association in 1980 and served as Regulation Counsel to the ABA Standing Committee on Professional Discipline prior to becoming the Director of the ABA Center for Professional Responsibility in 1982 and later also Associate Executive Director of the ABA Public Services Group until her death in 2013. Her many accomplishments included serving as the first Reporter for the ABA Evaluation of Lawyer Discipline Systems national project; founding and acting as Executive Editor of the ABA/BNA Lawyers' Manual on Professional Conduct and the Journal of the Professional Lawyer; leading the Center through major reviews of and revisions to the Model Rules of Professional Conduct and Model Code of Judicial Conduct; being the force behind the Center’s development of many other model rules, including those related to disciplinary enforcement, lawyer sanctions, multijurisdictional practice and client protection; lecturing on issues in professional responsibility law and regulation; and, throughout, being an inspiration and mentor to those around her. She also was a founding member of the Association of Professional Responsibility Lawyers, which honored her in 2010 as the first recipient of that group’s Charles W. Kettlewell Legal Ethics Advisor Award.

Former Michael Franck Award recipient and Arizona attorney Mark I. Harrison, in his nomination of Ms. Gray on behalf of himself and other past recipients of the award, remarked that, “She was a great friend, and our leader for decades in the field of professional responsibility.” California attorney Diane Karpman, who wrote in support of the nomination, added that “…Ms. Gray was the heart and soul of the ethics communities. She was one of the most remarkable women I have ever known.”

Her passion was exemplified by Chicago attorney Donald B. Hilliker, who has served as Chair of the ABA Standing Committee on Ethics and Professional Responsibility and the CPR Coordinating Council, who noted in 2010:

“Jeanne Gray has more passion for the importance of lawyer and judicial ethics than anyone I know. That passion, as well as her superb leadership and consensus building skills have been the key drivers in the creation of the ABA Center for Professional Responsibility, and in making it the leader in the development of legal and judicial ethics, nationally and internationally, that it is today. Without Jeanne, it wouldn’t have happened. She is second to none.”

As her successor Director of the Center for Professional Responsibility Arthur Garwin remarked, “Everything that the ABA Center for Professional Responsibility is, does and stands for can be traced to her vision, passion and dedication.”

She will be forever missed.

Award presentation May 29, 2014:
Presentation speech by ABA Treasurer Lucian Pera
Acceptance speech by Brett Gallagher

‘Indispensable’ late Jeanne Gray built a legacy of vital contributions to the field of legal ethics
(ABA Journal, August 1, 2013)

Advertisement

Follow ABA

About the Michael Franck Award

About The Award

2014 Award Recipient

Past Award Recipient