Articles from The American Inns of Court

Thomas B. Griffith has been selected to receive the prestigious 2026 American Inns of Court Professionalism Award for the DC Circuit. Until he retired from the bench in 2020, Griffith was a circuit judge for the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit. He will receive the award at a special awards ceremony in Williamsburg, Virginia, in June.

Kent A. Jordan has been selected to receive the prestigious 2025 American Inns of Court A. Sherman Christensen Award, which recognizes an Inn member who has provided distinguished, exceptional, and significant leadership to the American Inns of Court movement at the local, state, or national level. Jordan, a former federal judge who is now a director in the Delaware law firm Richards, Layton & Finger PA, will receive the award at the American Inns of Court 2025 Celebration of Excellence at the Supreme Court of the United States.

David L. Brown has been selected to receive the prestigious 2023 American Inns of Court Professionalism Award for the Eighth Circuit. Brown has been a partner in the Des Moines, Iowa, law firm Hansen, McClintock & Riley since 1978. He will receive the award during the 2023 Eighth Circuit Judicial Conference.

John A. Gibney Jr. has been selected to receive the prestigious 2023 American Inns of Court Professionalism Award for the Fourth Circuit. Chief Judge Roger Gregory of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit will present the award during the Fourth Circuit Judicial Conference. Gibney is a senior U.S. district judge for the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia.

Dick Schwartz has been selected to receive the prestigious 2023 American Inns of Court James E. Coleman Jr. Award for Professionalism in the Fifth Circuit. Judge Carl E. Stewart, Judge Barbara M.G. Lynn, and BG Malinda E. Dunn, USA (Ret.) presented the award in San Antonio, Texas, on May 8. Schwartz is a shareholder at the Houston law firm Munsch Hardt Kopf & Harr, PC.

Recently retired Judge John Waites has been selected to receive the prestigious 2022 American Inns of Court Bankruptcy Inn Alliance Distinguished Service Award, which recognizes a judge or attorney specializing in bankruptcy law who has exhibited ongoing dedication to the highest standards of the legal profession, the rule of law, and personal ethics and integrity. Waites will receive the award at the National Conference of Bankruptcy Judges, which takes place October 18-22 in Orlando, Florida.

Davis G. Yee is the 2021 winner of the prestigious Warren E. Burger Prize, a writing competition sponsored by the American Inns of Court to promote scholarship in the area of professionalism, ethics, civility, and excellence. The award, which comes with a $5,000 prize, recognizes Yee’s paper “Promoting Diversity as Professionalism.”