ASB Members Are Proof of Lawyers Rendering Service
Miglionico and Witherspoon Remembered for Pioneering Spirit
In April, the Birmingham City Council unanimously agreed to name two future city facilities for two pioneering councilwomen (and Alabama State Bar members).
A planned athletic facility in Five Points West will be named after Councilwoman Miriam Witherspoon and the planned transportation intermodal facility downtown will be named after former Council President Nina Miglionico.
Witherspoon, who died April 21st at age 48, was the first person with a disability to serve on the council. Miglionico, who died May 6th at age 95, was a longtime council member and among the first to serve under the city's new form of government in 1963. She won re-election through 1981. She was also the first woman to serve as council president and championed the rewriting of segregation-era ordinances in the city.
Miglionico was admitted to the ASB in 1936 and Witherspoon in 1990.
Bucy Honored for “Paving the Way”
The Women Lawyers Section of the Birmingham Bar Association (BBA) has honored Professor Pamela H. Bucy with the Nina Miglionico "Paving the Way"
Leadership Award. The award was established in 2005 by the section to recognize and honor individuals who have actively paved the way to success and advancement for women lawyers.
Professor Bucy was vice president of the Alabama State Bar for 2009-10 and the chair of the Alabama State Bar Mentoring Committee, in addition to being the Frank M. Bainbridge Professor of Law at the University of Alabama School of Law.
Farris Cited for Commitment and Involvement
Gary W. Farris, a partner at the Atlanta office of Burr & Forman LLP, is one of four recipients of the "Father of the Year" award. The awards were presented during the 2009 Father of the Year Awards Dinner in June. Net proceeds from the event go to the American Diabetes Association to support its local research, information and advocacy initiatives.
In its sixth year, the Atlanta Father's Day Council selected four dads to receive the prestigious award, and paid tribute to each of them for their exemplary commitment to their families, community involvement and ability to successfully balance their personal and business lives, while excelling in their chosen careers.
Farris, a father of four, graduated from the University of Alabama School of Law in 1988, where he was editor-in-chief of the Alabama Law Review and the recipient of the M. Leigh Harrison Award and the Hugo Black Award.
Stevenson Commended for Dedication
The Peter and Patricia Gruber Foundation announce Bryan Stevenson, executive director of the Equal Justice Initiative (http://eji.org/eji/) in Montgomery, is a co-recipient of this year's Gruber Prize for Justice (along with the European Roma Rights Centre, or ERRC). The recipients will share the $500,000 prize.
The Equal Justice Initiative represents indigent defendants, death row inmates and juveniles who have been denied fair and just treatment in the legal system. With his staff, Stevenson has largely been responsible for reversals and reduced sentences in more than 75 death penalty cases. Stevenson has also provided training for counsel representing death row inmates and is spearheading litigation in 19 states to get a fair review of sentencing and parole-eligible re-sentencing. He has been consistently recognized by the National Law Journal as one of the 100 most influential lawyers in America.
