Award Nominations and Guidelines

2025 Nominations Are Now Open

About

Created in 1989, the Mary C. Lawton Award for Outstanding Government Service honors the memory of Mary Lawton, a distinguished career government lawyer who served on the Council of the Administrative Law Section from 1983-1986, and as Chair of the Section’s Judicial Review Committee from 1986 to 1988.  A graduate of Georgetown Law School where she was first in her class and on the Board of Editors of the Law Journal, Mary began her career in the Office of the Legal Counsel in the Department of Justice.  At DOJ, she rose through the ranks to become a Deputy Assistant Attorney General.  She received numerous awards from the Department of Justice.  After a brief stint as General Counsel of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting and service as Administrative Law Officer at the White House, Mary returned to the Justice Department as Counsel for Intelligence Policy.

Eligibility

The Mary C. Lawton Award for Outstanding Government Service is presented annually by the American Bar Association’s Section of Administrative Law and Regulatory Practice. The nomination should be based on outstanding contributions to the development, implementation, or improvement of administrative law and regulatory practice that reflects sustained excellence in performance. This is an extremely prestigious award, and we hope that you will give thoughtful consideration to this request for nominees. There are relatively few honors for government attorneys that recognize them for the “body of their work.” Past recipients of the Award have spoken of this recognition as being a career capstone, and we are privileged to recognize their service. All government attorneys active in the fields of administrative law and regulatory practice are eligible. While career officials generally will be favored, exceptional political appointees also will be considered. Nominations are being solicited from federal government agency general counsels, state attorneys general, and other officials, as well as from members of our Section and the ABA Government and Public Sector Lawyers Division. 

Format

Please submit One (1) Nomination Letter including the name, title, agency, full address, telephone number and email address for the individual being nominated. In addition, the Nomination Letter should include the period of government service of the nominee, the departments or agencies in which he or she has served and is currently serving, and the specific contributions of the nominee that you think warrant his or her selection including mentoring activities in the administrative law and regulatory practice area; length of professional service; level of responsibility in positions held; discrete, significant accomplishments; teaching experience; scholarship; participation in professional activities; and other awards or recognition. The Committee would find it helpful if your nomination addresses these and any other factors you believe illuminate the nominee's qualifications. Please provide in addition complete contact information for the Nominator, as well as the names, phone numbers and email addresses of 2-3 other individuals whom the committee may contact to discuss the nominee’s qualifications.

Entry Procedure

Please save the Nomination Letter as a Microsoft Word document or a PDF file. Email the Nomination Letter to Section Director Anne Kiefer ([email protected]) by 7 pm Eastern time on June 30, 2025. Please direct any questions about the contest to the Section Director at [email protected].

Judging & Winner Notification

The entries will be judged by the Mary C. Lawton Award Committee of the ABA Section of Administrative Law and Regulatory Practice. The Committee holds its review meetings in June and July, and an award winner will be selected by August 2025. While we recognize that all of the individuals nominated for this award are most worthy, we select only one winner each year, and that winner is chosen at the sole discretion of the Section and its Awards Committee. The Section Director will contact all Nominators once a winner has been selected. The Nominator for the winning nominee will be given the opportunity to share the news with the award winner. Entries will be judged on the following criteria: 

• Mentoring activities in the administrative law and regulatory practice area
• Length of professional service
• Level of responsibility in positions held
• Discrete, significant accomplishments such as teaching experience; scholarship; participation in professional activities; and other awards or recognition.

Prize

The winner will receive a commemorative framed certificate and an invitation to an Awards Presentation during the Section’s Virtual Live Administrative Law Conference in November. We work with agency ethics counsel and this award has generally been deemed to be acceptable for covered officials. We ask the winner to share with our attendees their experiences and observations over a long career, and we have found these presentations to be very enlightening and rewarding for all concerned. The Section also honors the winners of several other awards during this virtual event. For any questions or concerns, please contact Anne Kiefer [email protected] or 202.662.1690.

Contact

For any questions or concerns, please contact Anne Kiefer [email protected] or 202.662.1690.

ABA Section of Administrative Law and Regulatory Practice, 1050 Connecticut Avenue NW Suite 400, Washington, DC 20036 Phone: (202) 662-1690 Fax: (202) 662-1529 http://www.americanbar.org/adminlaw