Michael Franck Award Recipients

2019 Award Recipient

Peter Jarvis

“Peter is a brilliant professional responsibility lawyer with a depth of knowledge, history and analytical skill matched by few in the field.”

Peter Jarvis, partner in Holland & Knight's Portland office, is the recipient of the 2019 Michael Franck Professional Responsibility Award from the American Bar Association Center for Professional Responsibility. Mr. Jarvis practices primarily in the area of attorney professional responsibility and risk management, advising lawyers, law firms, corporate legal departments and government legal departments about all aspects of the law governing lawyers. Mr. Jarvis also serves as an expert witness and is an avid lecturer for public and private/in-house continuing legal education seminars.

Mr. Jarvis is widely admired for mentoring others in the field of professional responsibility. In a joint letter of support, associates, partners, general counsels, in-house lawyers and friends of Mr. Jarvis, each of them professional responsibility lawyers who were mentored by him during the course of their careers, had this to say:

It would be easy for someone with his intelligence and skill to choose to occupy the top of the mountain alone. But Peter is not that person. Instead, Peter has devoted his time and energies to identifying, mentoring, teaching and supporting lawyers new to the field and then throughout their career. In doing so, Peter taught us more than just the Rules of Professional Conduct and legal framework; he taught us both the art of and passion for the law of lawyering. It is not an overstatement to say that Peter Jarvis has raised a generation of professional responsibility lawyers; from his generosity we have each grown our personal businesses and individual identities in the field.

Mr. Jarvis has written numerous publications and is a co-author of The Law of Lawyering (4th Ed. 2015), one of the country's leading professional responsibility treatises. He is a graduate of Yale Law School (J.D.), Yale University (M.A.) and Harvard University (B.A.), where he graduated magna cum laude. He is a former Board Member and President of the Association of Professional Responsibility Lawyers, and has served on numerous ethics-related committees of the ABA, Washington State Bar Association and Oregon State Bar. Mr. Jarvis has been recognized in the Best Lawyers in America guide in the area of Ethics and Professional Responsibility Law every year since 2010.

Mr. Jarvis will receive the ABA Michael Franck Professional Responsibility Award during the 45th National Conference on Professional Responsibility in Vancouver, B.C.

See Peter Jarvis’ full bio here.

2018 Award Recipient

Professor Bruce Green  

“Professor Green’s contributions to the field of legal ethics have been exemplary throughout his career.  He is a leader in the field with the deep respect of his peers.”

Matthew Diller
Dean
Fordham University School of Law

Bruce Green, Louis Stein Chair of Law and Director of the Louis Stein Center for Law and Ethics at Fordham University School of Law in New York, is the recipient of the 2018 Michael Franck Professional Responsibility Award from the American Bar Association Center for Professional Responsibility.  He joined the Fordham Law School faculty in 1987 and focuses his research and teaching areas on legal ethics and professional responsibility, criminal procedure, public interest/service, prosecutors and public defenders, and legal education.  

A graduate of Princeton University and Columbia University School of Law, he was a law clerk for both Judge James L. Oakes at the U.S. Court of appeals for the Second Circuit and Justice Thurgood Marshall at the U.S. Supreme Court.  He also served as a federal prosecutor in the South District of New York prior to joining Fordham.

Nationally, he has served on numerous ABA committees, commissions and task forces on ethics and professional responsibility, professionalism, multijurisdictional practice, American Jury Project, bioethics and the law, death penalty representation, criminal justice standards, attorney-client privilege, law schools and the profession, and those of ABA entities including the Center for Professional Responsibility, Litigation Section, Individual Rights and Responsibilities Section, and the Criminal Justice Section where he served as Chair in 2010-2011.  Lewis Tesser, Senior Partner at Tesser, Ryan and Rochman, LLP in New York also noted that Bruce “..is the New York go-to in all matters related to legal ethics.”  His service locally to the New York State Bar Association, Association of the Bar of the City of New York, New York County Lawyers’ Association, New York State Task Force on Attorney Professionalism and Conduct, New York State CLE Board, and others are a testament to his leadership and commitment in this field.

Colleague Ellen Yaroshefsky at Cardozo School of Law wrote that “Bruce Green has been one of the most significant voices in legal ethics in the last 30 years.”  His numerous scholarly accomplishments include articles in law reviews, legal periodicals, books and other legal writings.  As a highly sought-after speaker, he has participated in hundreds of programs both nationally and internationally. 

Professor Green will receive the ABA Michael Franck Professional Responsibility Award on May 31, 2018 during the 44th National Conference on Professional Responsibility in Louisville, KY. where he will also moderate a panel entitled Lies, Damned Lies and 'Alternative' Facts.

See bio.

2017 Award Recipient

Robert A. ("Bob") Creamer   

“His work has tended to be quiet and modest, but that work has helped transform the world of professional responsibility that the rest of us now inhabit.”

- Thomas D. Morgan
Oppenheim Professor Emeritus of Antitrust
and Trade Regulation Law
The George Washington University

Read acceptance speech – St. Louis, MO, June 1, 2017

Cambridge, MA. attorney Robert A. Creamer is the recipient of the 2017 Michael Franck Professional Responsibility Award. From 1994 until his retirement in 2006, he worked for Attorneys’ Liability Assurance Society, Inc. (ALAS), serving as a loss prevention counsel and later as ALAS Vice President, assisting ALAS-insured lawyers in avoiding professional liability claims and counseling them on ethics and professional responsibility topics. He also served as editor-in-chief of the ALAS Loss Prevention Manual; authored articles; and presented programs to ALAS-insured firms. Robert L. Denby, Senior Vice President of ALAS, Inc. noted that “…we believe that thousands of lawyers have a better understanding of professional responsibility issues as a result of Bob’s efforts while working at ALAS.”

From 1967-1993 Mr. Creamer practiced with the Chicago law firm of Keck, Mahin & Cate, concentrating in commercial litigation, arbitration, and lawyers’ professional responsibility. He currently is serving a second term as member of the ABA Standing Committee on Ethics and Professional Responsibility and has also been a liaison to that committee from the ABA Business Law Section. His substantial contributions during the ABA’s review of the Model Rules of Professional Conduct by its Ethics 2000 Commission (1997-2002) and Commission on Ethics 20/20 (1997-2013) included attending meetings of the commissions, speaking at public hearings on various issues, and submitting both formal and informal comments and suggestions.

As an adjunct professor, he taught legal ethics and professional responsibility at Northwestern University School of Law (2000-2008) and Loyola University Chicago School of Law (2007-2008). He is also active in the Illinois State Bar Association (ISBA) and served several terms as chair of its Standing Committee on Professional Conduct; as a co-chair of the ISBA/Chicago Bar Association Joint Committee on Ethics 2000; and as a member of the Drafting Committee for the Multistate Professional Responsibility Examination.

A graduate of Northwestern University and Harvard Law School, his memberships also have included The American Law Institute, Maritime Law Association of the United States, Association of Professional Responsibility Lawyers, Appellate Lawyers Association; Lawyers Club of Chicago; and Fellows of the American Bar Foundation and the Illinois Bar Foundation.

Mr. Creamer will receive the ABA Michael Franck Professional Responsibility Award on June 1, 2017 during the 43rd National Conference on Professional Responsibility in St. Louis.

2016 Award Recipient

Wallace E. “Gene” Shipp, Jr.  

“Through his example and mentorship, Gene inspires us to be better lawyers.  He reflects the very best of our society and our profession.”

- James C. Coyle, Director-at-Large
National Organization of Bar Counsel

Wallace E. “Gene” Shipp, Jr., Bar Counsel for the District of Columbia Office of Disciplinary Counsel, is the recipient of the 2016 Michael Franck Professional Responsibility Award.  He has served that office in various capacities for thirty-five years, rising to Bar Counsel in 2005. 

His many contributions to the legal profession include active membership in the American Bar Association and its Center for Professional Responsibility and Policy Implementation Committee; ABA Standing Committee on Client Protection; Editorial Board of the ABA/BNA Lawyers’ Manual on Professional Conduct; and liaison to the ABA Commission on Ethics 20/20 from the National Organization of Bar Counsel (NOBC).  In addition to participating in ABA evaluation teams (Gene only served on one team) helping to improve the regulatory framework in other states, he has also assisting in the development of attorney regulation systems in the former Soviet bloc, Pakistan, Palestine and Afghanistan. For the past four years he has also been active in the development of the annual International Conference of Legal Regulators (ICLR) and establishing it as a permanent organization. 

A long-standing and active member of NOBC, Mr. Shipp has served in various capacities including secretary and president and has served as the organization’s registered agent for the past thirty-two years.  In 2002 he received the NOBC President’s Award in recognition of his dedication and service. 

At the District of Columbia Bar he is a regular columnist for the Washington Lawyer and an ethics instructor.  He is also an adjunct faculty member at David Clarke School of Law, University of the District of Columbia; Washington College of Law, American University; and George Washington Law School, in addition to speaking at a variety of events and programs nationally on topics relating to ethics, professional responsibility and professional discipline. 

In 2008 Mr. Shipp was honored by the Legal Times as one of the “Champions of the Bar,” an award given to lawyers who have upheld the profession’s core values of public duty and client service.    His colleagues note that his commitment to legal ethics, attorney regulation and legal professionalism is unwavering and his contributions to these fields are expansive.  In her letter in support of his nomination for the Michael Franck Award, former ABA president Carolyn B. Lamm noted: “His knowledge of professional responsibility, respect of the Bar, empathy for those involved on both sides of the process, and integrity are beyond compare.”

The Michael Franck Professional Responsibility Award will be presented on June 2, 2016 at the National Conference on Professional Responsibility in Philadelphia, PA.

2015 Award Recipient

Steven C. Krane

"Steve’s untimely passing was a significant loss to the legal profession, but his accomplishments in the field of professional responsibility will continue to have a beneficial impact on lawyers for years to come."

- Stephen P. Younger, Esq.
2010-2011 President, New York State Bar Association

***

"Steve had such a profound love of the law, particularly the law governing our profession, that his passion for it was contagious."

- Mark J. Heise
Boise, Schiller & Flexner LLP

New York attorney Steven C. Krane is honored posthumously with the 2015 Michael Franck Professional Responsibility Award.  A partner and general counsel of Proskauer Rose LLP, his practice concentrated on representing lawyers and law firms in legal ethics and professional liability matters until his untimely death in 2010 at age 53.

He is honored for his leadership role in developing and interpreting the rules governing the professional conduct of lawyers including serving as a member of the New York State Commission on Public Integrity and as chair of the American Bar Association Standing Committee on Ethics and Professional Responsibility. He also led the New York State Bar Association (NYSBA) committee responsible for formulating ethics rules governing New York lawyers; served as co-chair of the New York Judicial Institute on Professionalism in the Law; vice-chair of the NYSBA Special Committee on the Law Governing Firm Structure and Operation (the MacCrate Committee); chair of the NYSBA Special Committee on Multidisciplinary Practice; vice-chair of the International Bar Association Committee on Multidisciplinary Practices; chair-elect of the NYSBA Section on International Law and Practice; chair of the NYSBA Special Committee on Cross-Border Legal Practice; advisor to the ABA Task Force on International Trade in Legal Services and as a member of the Policy Committee of the Bar Issues Commission of the International Bar Association.

Steve also served as president of the NYSBA in 2001-2002, the youngest person to hold that post, and as a member of the ABA's Board of Governors.  He also served as a clerk for Judge Judith Kaye in the New York State Court of Appeals; hearing panel member and chair of the Departmental Disciplinary Committee, First Judicial Department in New York; hearing panel chair for the Committee on Grievances of the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York; and as special referee for disciplinary cases in the Appellate Division, Second Judicial Department.  He wrote and lectured on ethics issues and taught professional responsibility for several years at Columbia Law School.   He received his undergraduate degree at Stony Brook University and juris doctorate from New York University School of Law. 

Steve will be honored during the 41st National Conference on Professional Responsibility in Denver, CO.

2014 Award Recipient

Jeanne P. Gray  

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)

2013 Award Recipient

John S. Gleason

“I marvel at his myriad of achievements and successes….  But this listing of his work does little justice to Mr. Gleason’s attitude and energetic devotion to improve and to educate all members of the legal profession. He embodies the traits to which all of us, who serve the public, aspire.  I can think of no other judicial employee who has contributed more to the betterment of the profession than he.  He exemplifies the dedication and character traits that Michael Franck embodied.”

- Hon. Michael L. Bender, Chief Justice
Supreme Court of Colorado

As Regulation Counsel for the Colorado Supreme Court for 14 years, John S. Gleason has been active in developing new and effective methods of regulating the practice of law, assisting other jurisdictions to implement new approaches to attorney and judicial regulation, and addressing unauthorized practice of law issues.

Following active duty in the U.S. military, Ohio Air National Guard, Toledo-Bowling Green Metro Bomb Squad, and Arapahoe County Colorado Sheriff’s Department Major Crimes Unit, he graduated from Ohio Northern University Claude Pettit School of Law  in 1985 and joined a Denver area law firm.

In 1987 he was hired by the Colorado Supreme Court Office of Disciplinary Counsel,  prosecuting over 150 attorney discipline, judicial discipline or unauthorized practice of law cases over the next 10 years.  He was subsequently appointed Regulation Counsel and implemented a new system which became a model for other state attorney regulation systems in addition to other programs relating to diversion, multi-jurisdictional practice of law, regulation of the unauthorized practice of law, and ethics and professional services.

In 2010, the Arizona Supreme Court requested his assistance as an Independent Bar Counsel charged with investigating allegations of misconduct in the Maricopa County Attorney’s office.  He devoted over 2 ½ years to the subsequent investigation and prosecution, all while maintaining his role as Regulation Counsel in Colorado.  

He has participated as a member of consultant teams for state lawyer and judicial regulatory systems and funds for client protection by the ABA Standing Committee on Professional Discipline and the ABA Standing Committee on Client Protection. 

Mr. Gleason is a past-president of the National Client Protection Organization and active with the National Organization of Bar Counsel, the Association of Judicial Disciplinary Counsel, the American Judicature Society, and the American Bar Association.  He is a fellow of the American Bar Foundation. He has served as an adjunct professor of law at the University of Denver Sturm College of Law and taught at the University of Colorado School of Law and undergraduate law classes at a local college.

In March, 2013 he joined the Oregon State Bar as Disciplinary Counsel and Directory of Regulatory Services.

2012 Award Recipient

Seth Rosner  

“While many academics, judges and practitioners have distinguished themselves in the field of legal ethics, only a handful can truly claim to have contributed meaningfully to the overarching concepts of professionalism. Mr. Rosner is a leader of this very elite group.”

- Diane Karpman
Karpman & Associates

Seth Rosner is a sole practitioner concentrating on business and corporate law and ethics and professional conduct in Saratoga Springs, NY. He was formerly a partner at Rosner, Rosner & McEvoy, senior partner at Marchi Jaffe Cohen Crystal Rosner & Katz, and counsel at Jacobs Persinger & Parker, all in New York City. He has served the American Bar Association, the New York State Bar Association, the Bar of the City of New York, and the New York County Lawyers Association for nearly 50 years on efforts to improve legal and judicial ethics and regulation.

A life Fellow of the American Bar Foundation, his service to the ABA has included a member of the ABA House of Delegates intermittently since 1967 and serving in numerous capacitates on many ABA entities including the Board of Governors, Standing Committees on Ethics and Professional Responsibility, Lawyer Competence, Professionalism, Professionalism, Legal Aid to Indigent Defendants, and Judicial Independence; the Editorial Board of the Lawyers’ Manual on Professional Conduct; the Commission on Evaluation of the ABA Model Code of Judicial Conduct; the Commission on Evaluation of the Rules of Professional Conduct (Ethics 2000); the Commission on Multidisciplinary Practice; the National Conference of Lawyers and CPA’s; the Coordinating Council of the Center for Professional Responsibility; the General Practice Section; and the Stanley Commission on Professionalism and its successor Special Committee on Professionalism. He is currently Vice-chair of the ABA Senior Lawyers Division. He is also a founding Director and past President of the Association of Professional Responsibility Lawyers and a life member of the American Law Institute.

His many professional and personal accomplishments include teaching, participating on CLE programs, writing, and public service activities. 

In 2010 Seth Rosner established the ABA Rosner & Rosner Justice Fund and the Rosner & Rosner Young Lawyers Professionalism Award in honor and in memory of his partners, Oscar S. Rosner, his father, and Jonathan L. Rosner, his brother. The annual award honors young lawyer commitment to legal and judicial ethics, lawyer professionalism, client protection and professional regulation. 

2011 Award Recipient

Stephen Gillers

“…his contribution to the field of professional responsibility has been both singular and enduring: he has been providing us with the benefit of his leadership, insight, intellect and scholarship for thirty years.”
 
- Mark I. Harrison
Osborn Maledon, A Professional Association
1996 Michael Franck Award Recipient

Stephen Gillers is the Crystal Eastman Professor of Law at New York University School of Law, with a focus on legal ethics, law and literature. His service to the legal community at both the state and national level has included being a member of the Ethics Committee of the Association of the Bar of the City of New York; an advisor to the New York State Supreme Court; a member of the ABA Commission on Multijurisdictional Practice; Chair of the ABA Center for Professional Responsibility Policy Implementation Committee, and a member of the ABA Commission on Ethics 20/20. He is a nationally recognized author and lecturer on subjects including legal and judicial ethics, regulation, professionalism, multijurisdictional practice and more. Gillers received his J.D. from New York University School of Law and B.A. from Brooklyn College. More

  2010 Award Recipient

Marvin L. Karp

“For nearly fifty years, Marv Karp has been quietly, effectively and with good humor inspiring his colleagues at the Bar to elevate ethical standards, professionalism and lawyer regulation.”

- Mark I. Harrison
Osborn Maledon, A Professional Association
1996 Michael Franck Award Recipient

A partner at Ulmer Berne LLP in Cleveland and Chair Emeritus of its Litigation Department, Marvin L. Karp has more than 45 years of trial and appellate experience in business, corporate and insurance litigation. His commitment to professional responsibility includes multi-year service to the ABA Standing Committee on Ethics and Professional Responsibility both as a member and as chair; advisor to the ABA Commission to Evaluate the Model Code of Judicial Conduct; chair of the ABA Senior Lawyers Division Ethics and Professionalism Committee; and three years as chair of the CPR/Section Officers Conference Joint Committee on Ethics and Professionalism. He also served as a member of the ABA House of Delegates and chaired the ABA Tort Trial and Insurance Practice Section and its Professionalism Committee.

He serves on the Ohio Supreme Court Commission on Professionalism and has served on the Ohio Supreme Court Task Force on the Code of Judicial Conduct. At the Cleveland Metropolitan Bar Association he chaired the Special Committee on Professionalism, Ad Hoc Commission on ABA Proposed Model Rules of Professional Conduct, and the Professional Responsibility Committee. He is also a member of the Joint Project on Professionalism developed by four national defense organizations, the Defense Research Institute, the Association of Defense Trial Attorneys, the Federation of Insurance and Defense Counsel and the International Association of Defense Counsel.

Among many honors, he was the recipient of the Ohio State Bar Association’s highest honor, The Ohio Bar Medal (2007) and was the first recipient of the William K. Thomas Professionalism Award presented by the Cleveland Bar Association (2001). He also received the Andrew M. Hecker Memorial Award for Professionalism from the ABA Tort Trial and Insurance Section (1998). He is a respected author of numerous articles and a speaker at national and international programs.

Mr. Karp will receive the Michael Franck Award at the 36th National Conference on Professional Responsibility on June 3, 2010 in Seattle, WA.

2009 Award Recipient

Mary C. Daly

“..it is impossible to paint the full picture of Mary Daly’s contributions to legal ethics and professionalism, because much of what she contributed was a product not of what she accomplished but of who she was.  Mary was a consensus-builder as a bar leader and law school administrator, and a community-builder in all aspects of her academic and professional work. She was a model of openness, self-sacrifice, hard work, intellect, and grace.  She was a friend and role model to junior colleagues and a supportive and inspirational peer.  Her imprint upon them and the profession generally, and the people we serve, will be a lasting one.”  

- Bruce A. Green
Louis Stein Professor
Fordham University School of Law

In recognition of a lifetime of achievements and dedication to legal ethics, the late Mary C. Daly received the 2009 award posthumously.  Ms. Daly served as Dean and John V. Brennan Professor of Law and Ethics at St. John’s University School of Law from 2004 until her death in November 2008. Prior to that, she was the James H. Quinn Professor of Legal Ethics at Fordham University School of Law and served as the director of the law school’s graduate program and the co-director of its Louis Stein Center for Law and Ethics. She originally joined the faculty of Fordham in 1983.  Earlier in her career she practiced law with the New York law firm of Rogers & Wells and also served as an assistant United States Attorney in the Southern District of New York.

In the early 1990’s, Ms. Daly was instrumental in helping to cultivate academic work in legal ethics by gathering together law professors attending the ABA’s annual National Conference on Professional Responsibility to discuss teaching and scholarship projects. This tradition is still carried on today.  Her scholarly writings and publications focused on corporate, comparative and cross-border practice, multidisciplinary partnerships and comparative approaches to professional responsibility. She was a frequent speaker at CLE programs and events both nationally and internationally.

M s. Daly served as the Reporter for the ABA Commission on Multidisciplinary Practice from 1998-2000; a member of the ABA Standing Committee on Professional Discipline from 2001-12004; and on the Editorial Board of the ABA/BNA Lawyers’ Manual on Professional Conduct. She was active in the ABA Section of Legal Education and Admissions to the Bar, the Association of Professional Responsibility Lawyers, the New York State Bar Association, the Association of the Bar of the City of New York and the Federal Bar Council Foundation. 

Professor Laurel S. Terry wrote of Ms. Daly’s lifetime of achievements, “When you put all of these together, what you have is a scholar who was a pioneer and a giant in the field and whose work will be relied upon long beyond her untimely death.”  Her dedication to family, community, and the legal profession will be deeply missed.

2008 Award Recipient

Geoffrey C. Hazard, Jr.  

“Geoffrey Hazard is a towering figure in American law and he has placed an indelible imprint on legal ethics and professional conduct.”

- Philip S. Anderson
1998-1999 President
American Bar Association

A renowned teacher, author and advisor, Geoffrey C. Hazard Jr. is the Thomas E. Miller Distinguished Professor of Law at the University of California Hastings College of the Law. He has taught civil procedure, legal ethics and federal jurisdiction at law schools since 1958, including Boalt Hall (University of California, Berkeley), the University of Chicago, Yale University, and the University of Pennsylvania. His service to the American Bar Association includes appointments to the Special Commission on Evaluation of Professional Standards (the “Kutak Commission”), Ethics 2000 Commission, Special Committee on the Code of Judicial Conduct; Special Commission on the Standards of Judicial Administration, and the Resource Team for High Profile Trials. He also serves as senior advisor to the ABA Section of Business Law. He has served as a member of the Standing Committee on Rules of Practice and Procedures for the Judicial Conference of the United States and on its Ad Hoc Committee on Mass Torts. He has been the executive director of both the American Bar Foundation (1964-1970) and the American Law Institute (1984-1999).

His publications include co-author of a treatise and a casebook in civil procedure and professional ethics and author or co-author of numerous books and articles. His professional awards in acknowledgment of his accomplishments include the Ceremony of Salute from the Superior Court of Pennsylvania, the Gold Medal from the International Insolvency Institute and the Kutak Award from the American Bar Association Section of Legal Education.

Geoffrey C. Hazard, Jr., died on January 11, 2018, at the age of 88. (more) 

2007 Award Recipient

Lawrence J. Fox

“[His]…. passion for professionalism has uplifted the aspirations and conduct of the legal community.”
“With insight, humor, enormous energy and unclouded vision, he is the constant conscience of the practicing bar….”

- Norma L. Shapiro, Senior Judge
United States District Court
Eastern District of Pennsylvania

Among his many professional accomplishments, Lawrence J. Fox was instrumental in the creation and served as an active member of the ABA Commission on the Evaluation of the Rules of Professional Conduct (Ethics 2000). The work of the Commission has served to advance the role of professional responsibility law in the administration of justice, notes Jeanne P. Gray, director of the ABA Center for Professional Responsibility.

Mr. Fox has also served as chair of the ABA Standing Committee on Ethics and Professional Responsibility and the Planning Committee for the annual ABA National Conference on Professional Responsibility. In other ABA roles, he served as chair of the ABA Section of Litigation, Section Officers Conference and Post-Conviction Death Penalty Representation Project. He was the 2005 recipient of the ABA Pro Bono Publico Award.

His appearances across the country include participating in numerous continuing legal education programs and lectures or classes at over 35 law schools. Television appearances include ABC News’ Nightline, CNN’s Crossfire, Talk Back Live and Burden of Proof, and NBC’s The Today Show on topics covering a wide range of professional responsibility issues. Internationally, he has visited Argentina, Italy and The People’s Republic of China as a specialist and speaker on the role and rights of lawyers.

He is the author of the book Legal Tender: A Lawyers’ Guide to Professional Dilemmas and the co-author of the books Traversing the Ethical Minefield: Problems, Law, and Professional Responsibility; Red Flags: A Lawyer’s Handbook on Legal Ethics; and Your Lawyer: A User’s Guide with Professor Susan R. Martyn. In addition, he has written numerous articles that have appeared in national law reviews, professional publications, and state and local bar journals. In a joint letter of recommendation for the Michael Franck Award, Professor Martyn and Los Angeles attorney Diane Karpman stated that “We find it difficult to imagine another person who has generated so much interest in professional responsibility or who has influenced so many.”

Lawrence J. Fox is a partner at the Philadelphia firm of Drinker Biddle and Reath LLP (since 1976) and specializes in corporate and securities litigation. He served as Managing Partner (1987-1989, 1991-1998) and is the former chair of the firm’s Professional Responsibility Committee. More

2006 Award Recipient

Deborah L. Rhode

Deborah L. Rhode is the Ernst W. McFarland Professor of Law and Director of the Stanford Center on Ethics at Stanford Law School.

Professor Rhode has been a leader in establishing legal ethics and professionalism in the curriculums of law schools throughout the country. Her many accomplishments include service as president of the Association of American Law Schools and chair of the ABA Commission on Women in the Profession.

She has been a member of the Stanford faculty since 1979 and visiting professor at Harvard, Columbia and Fordham law schools. She also served as senior counsel to Minority Members, Judiciary Committee, U.S. House of Representatives, Cooperating Attorney for the ACLU, and clerk to Judge Murray I. Gurfein of the U.S. Court of Appeals, Second Circuit and Justice Thurgood Marshall, U.S. Supreme Court.

Among other honors, she was a recipient of the American Bar Foundation’s W.M. Keck Foundation Award for Distinguished Scholarship on Legal Ethics and Professional Responsibility.

Her many published works include Pro Bono in Principle and in Practice, Legal Ethics with David Luban; Professional Responsibility and Regulation with Geoffrey Hazard, Ethics in Practice; and Professional Responsibility: Ethics by the Pervasive Method. Her areas of focus include not only professional responsibility, but also gender and the law, and public policy.   More

2005 Award Recipient

E. Norman Veasey

E. Norman Veasey is a senior partner at Weil Gotshal and serves as a strategic adviser to the firm's roster of prominent global clients on a wide range of issues related to mergers and acquisitions, restructuring and litigation. Additionally, he advises on corporate governance issues involving the responsibilities of corporate directors in complex financial transactions and crisis management.

Mr. Veasey is the former Chief Justice of Delaware, having stepped down from the Delaware Supreme Court in May 2004, after serving for 12 years as the top judicial officer and administrator of that state's judicial branch. During his tenure as Chief Justice, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce ranked Delaware's courts first in the nation for three consecutive years for their fair, reasonable and efficient litigation environment. Justice Veasey has also been credited with leading nationwide programs to restore professionalism to the practice of law and adopt best practices in the running of America's courts. He was awarded the Order of the First State by Delaware Governor Ruth Ann Minner, the highest honor for meritorious service the state's governor can grant.

Justice Veasey was President of the Conference of Chief Justices, Chair of the Board of the National Center for State Courts, Chair of the Section of Business Law of the American Bar Association and Chair of the American Bar Association's Special Committee on Evaluation of the Rules of Professional Conduct (Ethics 2000). He is a Fellow of the American College of Trial Lawyers and Chair-elect of the Committee on Corporate Laws of the Section of Business Law of the American Bar Association.

During 1992-93 he was the editor of Volume 48 of The Business Lawyer, the scholarly legal journal published by the Section of Business Law of the ABA. He was awarded an Honorary Doctor of Laws Degree from Widener University in 1993. In 1995 he was awarded the Dartmouth College Class of 1954 Award; in 1996 he received the Lewis F. Powell, Jr. Award for Professionalism and Ethics from the American Inns of Court Foundation; in 2000 he received the Alumni Award of Merit from the University of Pennsylvania; in 2001 he received the St. Thomas More Society Award; he received the 2002 National Center for State Courts' Paul C. Reardon Award; and in 2002 he received the First Annual Ethics Award from the American Corporate Counsel Association. In 2003, he received an Honorary Doctor of Laws Degree from the University of Delaware. Also in 2003, he was elected to the Warren E. Burger Society of the National Center for State Courts. In 2004, the Governor of Delaware awarded Chief Justice Veasey with the Order of the First State.

From 1957 until he took office as Chief Justice in 1992, Mr. Veasey practiced law with the Wilmington, Delaware, law firm of Richards, Layton and Finger, where he concentrated on business law, corporate transactions, litigation, and counseling. He served at various times as managing partner and the chief executive officer of the firm. During 1961-63, he was Deputy Attorney General and Chief Deputy Attorney of the State of Delaware. In 1982-83, he was president of the Delaware State Bar Association.

Mr. Veasey is a director of the Institute for Law and Economics at the University of Pennsylvania, a member of the American Law Institute, a member of the International Advisory Board of the Centre for Corporate Law and Securities Regulation and numerous other professional organizations. He is a frequent panelist and lecturer on the corporation law, corporate governance, ethics and professionalism.

Mr. Veasey received his A.B. degree from Dartmouth College in 1954 and his LL.B. degree from the University of Pennsylvania Law School in 1957. At the University of Pennsylvania Law School, he was a member of the Board of Editors and the Senior Editor of the University of Pennsylvania Law Review.

2003 Award Recipient

Charles W. Kettlewell

Ohio lawyer Charles W. Kettlewell is the recipient of the 2003 Michael Franck Professional Responsibility Award.

Founder and first President of the Association of Professional Responsibility Lawyers (APRL), Kettlewell was instrumental in establishing a national and international forum for lawyers concerned about professional responsibility issues. Kettlewell also served as President of the National Organization of Bar Counsel and has been a leader in American Bar Associations activities related to professional responsibility. He has served as a member of the ABA Standing Committees on Professional Discipline and Lawyer Responsibility for Client Protection; ABA Commission on the Evaluation of Disciplinary Enforcement (the "McKay Commission"); ABA Joint Committee on Professional Sanctions; and ABA/BNA Lawyers' Manual on Professional Conduct.

A former Assistant Disciplinary Counsel in Ohio, Kettlewell has authored more than 1600 advisory opinions for lawyers and has served as a consultant and testifying expert on nearly 200 malpractice cases. A speaker at many educational programs, Kettlewell has taught the Professional Responsibility course at Ohio State University School of Law since 1977 and is the former Director of Law Institutes at Capital University Law School (1983-1985). He has served as an ethics columnist for Trial magazine and publishes an ethics case digest for Ohio lawyers. He has also been instrumental in the development and presentation of international conferences dealing with international legal ethics and risk management issues in Shanghai, China and Florence, Italy.

In private practice since 1985, Kettlewell focused on lawyer ethics and disciplinary matters. He served as a member of the American Bar Association; ABA Center for Professional Responsibility; Association of Professional Responsibility Lawyers (APRL); National Organization of Bar Counsel (NOBC); Ohio State Bar Association; Columbus Bar Association; and Oregon State Bar Association. He is a fellow of the American Bar Foundation; Ohio State Bar Foundation; and Columbus Bar Foundation.

Mr. Kettlewell passed away in 2005 following a short illness.

2002 Award Recipient

M. Peter Moser  

M. Peter Moser, who practiced law in Baltimore since 1950, is the 2002 recipient of the Michael Franck Award for Professional Responsibility.

"Peter Moser has rendered profound service to the American public through his insistence that the legal profession look critically at the most complex ethical questions as they develop, putting the interests of clients, the courts and ultimately justice itself ahead of the interests of lawyers. He has coupled his commitment to principle and honesty with an appreciation of the realities of legal practice, helping the ABA to serve the profession through an unfaltering allegiance to the public trust," said Burnelle Powell, chair of the Coordinating Council for the ABA Center for Professional Responsibility.

Of counsel with the firm of Piper Rudnick LLP, Moser was a partner in the firm of Frank, Bernstein, Conaway & Goldman for 35 years. He also served as assistant state’s attorney for Baltimore City and a judge advocate on active duty in Korea.

For most of his career, Moser has been involved with lawyer discipline and professional responsibility issues. In the ABA, he has been a member of the Standing Committee on Ethics and Professional Responsibility for a total of 13 years, chaired the committee for five of those years, and is its liaison to the ABA Commission on Multijurisdictional Practice that recently issued recommendations to reform unauthorized practice of law regulations. He also was a member of the ethics committee’s Judicial Code Subcommittee, which revised the national model for state judicial ethics codes, and has been a member since 1997 of the Advisory Group to the ABA Ethics 2000 Commission, which revised model ethics standard for lawyers.

Moser is a past treasurer of the ABA. As a member of the ABA Board of Governors, he was board liaison to the association’s Standing Committee on Ethics and Professional Responsibility, as well as to the ABA/BNA Lawyers' Manual on Professional Responsibility and the ABA Standing Committee on Lawyers Responsibility for Client Protection.

He has chaired the ABA Finance Committee, served on the Executive Committee and acted as liaison to numerous other association entities. He has been a member of the ABA policy-making House of Delegates, a member of the board of The American Bar Foundation and Amerian Bar Foundation president.

Moser is a member of the Association of Professional Responsibility Lawyers and the American Law Institute, where he was an advisor to a group writing the Restatement of the Law Governing Lawyers. He has taught professional responsibility and other courses at the University of Maryland and University of Baltimore schools of law and published articles and participated in programs and symposia on lawyer screening, client confidences, conflicts of interest, multijurisdictional practice and other legal profession issues.

He has served as president of the Maryland State Bar Association and the Bar Association of Baltimore City. He has served on the Maryland association’s Joint Committee on Gender Equality in the Courts and its Ethics 2000 Committee, and has chaired or served on numerous other committees of both associations.

Moser chaired the Maryland State Ethics Commission and the Attorney Grievance Commission of Maryland, which he helped establish along with Maryland’s statewide lawyer disciplinary system, and has served on court of appeals committees to study the Model Rules of Professional Conduct. Elected to the Maryland Constitutional Convention in 1967, he chaired its committee on local government.

He also has served on the Permanent Commission on Municipal Courts, the Baltimore City Planning Commission, the Regional Planning Council, the Mayor’s Task Force on Equal Employment Opportunity, the Metropolitan Transit Authority Advisory Council, the Citizens Advisory Committee on the District Court and the District 1 Advisory Board for the Public Defender System.

He has served locally on the board of Life Bridge Health Systems; the Jewish Big Brother League of Baltimore, Inc.; the Jewish Community Federation of Baltimore; the Baltimore Jewish Community Center; the Baltimore Area Girl Scout Council and other community organizations.

Peter Moser passed away in 2008 at the age of 80

2001 Award Recipient

John T. Berry

John T. Berry, executive director of the State Bar of Michigan, received the American Bar Association's 2001 Michael Franck Professional Responsibility Award.

"John Berry has compiled a distinguished record of leadership in the field of professional regulation and legal ethics. His contributions - addressing both the broad needs and issues of the legal profession and the concerns generated by specific crises - have always reflected an overriding commitment to the public interest," said Dean Burnele Powell of the University of Missouri - Kansas City School of Law, who chaired the Coordinating Council for the ABA Center for Professional Responsibility.

Powell noted that as director of the Legal Division of The Florida Bar, Berry coordinated the state bar's response to the ValuJet plane crash in 1996 in Florida's Everglades. The state bar provided neutral legal information, advice and assistance to the public, creating a system that has become a model for other state bars' mass disaster responses.

It is especially moving, Powell observed, that Berry receives the award as executive director of the State Bar of Michigan. "Now, at the leadership of the very state bar where Michael Franck worked unswervingly to raise the standards of lawyer ethics and disciplinary enforcement, there can be little doubt that Berry is both literally and figuratively an heir to the Michael Franck legacy," he said.

Berry was appointed to his position in Michigan last November. Previously, he was director of the Legal Division of The Florida Bar for 15 years and at the Arizona State Bar for two years. In Arizona, he oversaw dramatic and highly-praised changes to the disciplinary system. In 1999, Berry returned to Florida to create and serve as the first director of the Center for Professionalism at the University of Florida, Levin College of Law. The center has among its goals increasing law school interaction with practicing lawyers and judges, and promoting lawyer professionalism.

Berry served on the ABA's Commission on Evaluation of Disciplinary Enforcement, created in 1989 to conduct a nationwide assessment of lawyer discipline and provide a model for responsible regulation of the legal profession for the 21st century. He is a past president of the National Organization of Bar Counsel, and now represents that group in the ABA House of Delegates. He also has served as a member and chair of the ABA Standing Committee on Professionalism.

2001 Award Recipient

Raymond R. Trombadore

Raymond R. Trombadore of New Jersey was presented the 2001 Michael Franck Award for Professional Responsibility. Ray's lifelong accomplishments in the field of professional responsibility are well documented and unparalleled. "He has been dedicated to the field of professional responsibility since the beginning of his career," noted Center for Professional Responsibility Coordinating Council Chair Burnele V. Powell. "Through his service on many commissions and committees, he has helped shape professional ethics for the 21st century."

Trombadore was president of the New Jersey State Bar Association, on the Executive Council of the National Conference of Bar Presidents, as well as a member of the ABA House of Delegates. His greatest contribution is, of course, his service as member and chair of the McKay Commission, the ABA Commission on Evaluation of Disciplinary Enforcement. When the Commission Chair Robert B. McKay passed away, Ray stepped up as chair. The resulting report adopted by the ABA House of Delegates serves as the model of lawyer discipline in this country. As chair of the ABA Standing Committee on Professional Discipline, he carried on the work of implementing in every state a lawyer regulatory system that is fair, efficient, and effective. He tirelessly advocated lawyer regulation that inspires public confidence and helps lawyers under the auspices of an independent judiciary.

Mr. Trombadore passed away in 2002 following a long illness.

2000 Award Recipient

Andrew L. Kaufman

Professor Andrew L. Kaufman was selected as the 2000 recipient of the Michael H. Franck Professional Responsibility Award. Professor Kaufman was selected for his substantial contributions to American legal ethics and for his distinguished service to law students, the bench, and the bar.

Described as a "teacher's teacher" and a "lawyer's lawyer," Professor Kaufman began teaching at Harvard Law School in 1965. He served as Associate Dean of the law school from 1986-1989. He is the author of a highly acclaimed biography of Justice Benjamin N. Cardozo, Cardozo (Harvard University Press, 1998). Prior to publishing the book, Professor Kaufman wrote many articles on Justice Cardozo, the Supreme Court and its critics, and is the co-author of Commercial Law (Little, Brown, 2d ed.1989). His course on the legal profession was one of the first in the nation and his Problems in Professional Responsibility (Little, Brown, 3d ed.1989), was the first case book in the field. It appeared in 1976 and now is in its third edition. His teaching interests include the Supreme Court, the legal profession, commercial law, and constitutional law. Professor Kaufman received both his A.B. and LL.B. degrees from Harvard University. After law school, he clerked for Supreme Court Justice Felix Frankfurter and then became partner for several years at Kaufman, Kaufman & Kaufman.

In 1968-70, Professor Kaufman chaired the Association of American Law Schools' (AALS) Special Committee on Professional Responsibilities of Law Teachers. In 1971, he served on the AALS's Special Committee on Judicial Ethics. From 1976 to 1983, he served on the Executive Committee of the AALS Section on Professional Responsibility and acted as chair in 1981 and 1982. He wrote about the new Model Code of Professional Responsibility under the title, "The Lawyers' New Code," 22 Harv. L.S. Bull. 19 (1970), and when Code became the Model Rules, he authored "A Critical First Look at the Model Rules of Professional Conduct," 66 A.B.A.J. 1074 (1980).

Since 1984, he has served on several advisory committees to the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court, including the Committee on Lawyer Solicitation, the Advisory Committee on Judicial Ethics, the Committee on Certification of Lawyer Specialization, the Model Rules Committee, the Committee on Lawyer Advertising, the Standing Committee on the Model Rules, and the Committee on the Model Code of Judicial Conduct. He has been a member of the Massachusetts Bar Association Committee on Professional Ethics since 1978 and its chairman since 1982. The Committee offered the following description of their chair:

1999 Award Recipient

Robert E. O'Malley

Robert E. O’Malley of Washington, D.C., received the 1999 Michael Franck Award for outstanding contributions to the field of professional responsibility.

"Bob O’Malley stands out among those lawyers who have worked in recent years to sensitize lawyers in large firms to the centrality and importance of legal ethics," said Burnele V. Powell of Kansas City, Chair of the ABA Center’s Coordinating Council. "He has been spectacularly successful in raising the level of ethics observance of lawyers in that setting."

O’Malley was a partner in the D.C. law firm of Covington & Burling from 1969 to 1985. In 1979, he also became vice chairman of the board of ALAS of Chicago, which provides large limit professional liability coverage for large law firms. He was named ALAS’ chief loss prevention counsel in 1985, and moved into the senior advisor position in 1998.

Roger C. Cramton, a professor of law at Cornell Law School, Ithaca, N.Y., explained in nominating O’Malley that his work in organizing, developing and improving the ALAS loss prevention program built on his recognition that preventing legal malpractice and other claims against lawyers was "inextricably tied to promoting the highest standards of ethical awareness and professionalism among (them)."

"Beginning with that insight, he built an organization and program to promote ethical and professional responsibility compliance by the tens of thousands of practicing lawyers insured by ALAS . . . . The hallmark of Bob O’Malley’s approach to legal ethics awareness and professional responsibility is a unique combination of practicality and the highest standards of legal scholarship," said Cramton.

O’Malley has played a unique role in enhancing legal ethics on the part of all sections of the American bar. His educational and public service efforts have reached many outside the world of large law firms. He has taught professional responsibility at Cornell, Georgetown University Law Center and Washington College of Law at American University, and plans to resume law school teaching upon his retirement from ALAS in June 2000. He is a member of the Counsel Responsibility Committee of the ABA Section of Business Law, and a former member of the ABA Standing Committee on Professionalism and the ABA Standing Committee on Lawyers’ Professional Liability.

He participated in the Advisory Council to the ABA Commission on Evaluation of the Rules of Professional Conduct and as an adviser to the American Law Institute Restatement of the Law Governing Lawyers. He was a member of the ALI-ABA Practice Evaluation Project, and past chair of the District of Columbia Bar Legal Ethics Committee.

O’Malley published several scholarly law review articles on ethics and malpractice issues. He is a cum laude graduate of the University of Notre Dame and received his law degree from Northwestern University Law School.

1998 Award Recipient

Monroe H. Freedman

Professor Monroe H. Freedman was selected as the 1998 receipient of the Michael H. Franck Professional Responsibility Award to honor his lifetime of original and influential scholarship in the field of lawyers' ethics.

The Howard Lichtenstein Distinguished Professor of Legal Ethics at Hofstra University Law School, his scholarship has shaped the debate in legal ethics, beginning with his 1966 article "The Professional Responsibility of the Criminal Defense Lawyer: The Three Hardest Questions."

In addition to being a prolific author, Prof. Freedman has also written several books, including "Lawyers' Ethics in and Adversary System" and "Understanding Lawyers' Ethics."

Although many of Prof. Freedman's ideas were first considered controversial, they have since become an integral part of the law governing lawyers. He was the first scholar to argue that comprehensive restrictions on advertising violated the First Amendment and that they unduly restricted the availability of legal services to citizens who are most in need of information about their legal rights. Another of Prof. Freedman's major contributions is the recognition of the crucial role that the concept of "knowing" has played in ethical rules.

Boston College Law Professor Charles Baron noted in a review of one of Prof. Freedman's books:

"Monroe Freedman is in the grand tradition of Socrates . . . [H]e is essentially a moralist . . . He confesses error on several occasions regarding positions he has taken earlier and anticipates having to do it again on positions he hazards this time around. His is the old-fashioned, philosophical dedication to truth. He is not afraid to admit error, nor to take on sacred cows."

Monroe Freedman passed away on February 26, 2015.  In September, 2015 THE PROFESSIONAL LAWYER (Vol. 23, #2) published five essays on Professor Freedman’s life and his legacy, personal and professional, from those who knew him well.

• Rigorous, Relevant, and Right: The Scholarship of Monroe Freedman by Alice Woolley
• The Essential Monroe Freedman, in Four Works Vol. by Michael Tigar
• Monroe Freedman – Heart and Mind by Abbe Smith
• Monroe Freedman: Servant Leader, Bridge Builder by Susan Fortney
• Monroe Freedman, the Consummate Colleague by Roy Simon

1997 Award Recipient

Lewis H. Van Dusen, Jr.

Lewis H. Van Dusen, a partner in the law firm of Drinker, Biddle & Reath in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, was awarded the Michael Franck Professional Responsibility Award on August 1, 1997.

Mr. Van Dusen accomplishments spanned more than a half century, and ranged from daring, as a bar leader to publicly challenge corrupt practices within the tight-knit community of the bar to working toward international justice as the first Director of the United States Representation to NATO in the early 1950s. While his broad vision of a lawyer’s responsibility for the quality of justice served as an inspiration to his law firm colleagues, he was singled out to receive the Michael Franck award for the intense focus he brought to the study and literature of legal ethics.

Following in the tradition of his law firm partner Henry S. Drinker, Mr. Van Dusen served on the ABA Standing Committee on Ethics and Professional Responsibility and its predecessor Standing Committee on Professional Ethics from 1953 to 1956 and from 1962 to 1974. Serving as its chair from 1971 to 1974, he oversaw what was arguably the single biggest step forward in establishing ethical standards for the bar: the development and adoption of the Model Code of Professional Responsibility. During his time of service, the committee also issued what has been described as a "blizzard" of ethics opinions.

Closer to home, Mr. Van Dusen served as president of the Pennsylvania Bar Association and chancellor of the Philadelphia Bar Association, where he also worked to improve ethical standards.

Mr. Van Dusen passed away in 2004 at age 93.

1996 Award Recipient

Mark I. Harrison

Lawyer discipline and lawyer professionalism have been high on Mark I. Harrison’s list of priorities during the last two decades of his very active law practice and equally active and inspiring service to the organized bar at the local, state and national levels.

In accepting the Michael Franck Professional Responsibility Award for 1996, Harrison modestly claimed to be "no Michael Franck and no Bob Drinan," referring to the first two recipients of the award. As those who gathered to honor him at the presentation ceremony were reminded by remarks from former ABA President George Bushnell, Harrison in fact could boast a distinguished record of visionary projects undertaken in the name of improving the nation’s lawyer disciplinary system and raising the profession’s standards of behavior.

Beginning with a visit to Idaho in 1980 to assist in a requested review of that state’s lawyer discipline system, Harrison served over the next dozen years on state discipline system evaluations in Massachusetts, New York, Alaska, Ohio and Washington on behalf of the ABA Standing Committee on Professional Discipline, one of the many ABA Committees for which he served as Chair.

Harrison also has displayed vision and commitment in considering and promoting lawyer professionalism. In 1988 he was chosen to be the Chair of the Special Coordinating Committee on Professionalism, which suggested or initiated many of the projects still directed by today’s Standing Committee on Professionalism. That service also led to his appointment in 1990 to head a working group on a then-developing new issue of lawyers’ operation of "ancillary business."

His careful and creative thinking about the profession were not limited to matters of ethics and regulation, however: he also was asked to chair the ABA’s first Long Range Planning Committee, which introduced improved budgeting and programming philosophies still in place today.

On the state level, Mr. Harrison has served as a member of the Arizona Supreme Court Special Committee on Lawyer Discipline and Professional Conduct, the Arizona State Bar Ethics Committee, the Arizona State Bar Special Committee on the Model Rules of Professional Conduct, and the Arizona State Bar Committee on Professionalism.

1995 Award Recipient

Fr. Robert Drinan

ABA President George E. Bushnell, Jr. presented the 1995 Michael Franck Professional Responsibility Award to Fr. Robert Drinan of the Georgetown University Law Center during the 1995 ABA Annual Meeting in Chicago. Fr. Drinan was the second recipient of the award, which was created in 1994 and presented at that time to Michael Franck, whose dedication to issues of professional responsibility was especially distinguished by his leadership of the 1975 Clark Commission’s landmark study of lawyer discipline and his pivotal role in the six-year-long development of the Kutak Commission’s Model Rules of Professional Conduct.

Mr. Bushnell’s remarks cited Fr. Drinan’s many accomplishments, including his founding of the Georgetown Journal of Legal Ethics and his "gift of conscience to the legal profession."

Fr. Drinan, who is a former member of the United States Congress and a noted writer on legal ethics and champion of individual rights, paid tribute to Michael Franck upon accepting the award and then called upon the legal profession to pay special heed to the critical need for pro bono services. He also took a moment to question the serious ethical implications of judges accepting political contributions from lawyers who come before them.

The complete texts of Mr. Bushnell and Fr. Drinan’s remarks have been published in the 1995 Symposium Issue of the The Professional Lawyer.

Fr. Drinan passed away in 2007 at the age of 86 following a short illness.

1994 Award Recipient

Michael Franck

In 1994 former State Bar of Michigan Executive Director Michael Franck received the first Michael Franck Professional Responsibility Award, established in his honor by the American Bar Association in recognition of outstanding contributions to the legal profession.  Read more