MSNBC's Barnicle to Speak at Bar Association Luncheon, Sotomayor Award Presented
PHILADELPHIA, March 27, 2012 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Award-winning journalist Mike Barnicle, a frequent contributor and guest host on MSNBC will be the keynote speaker at the Philadelphia Bar Association's Wednesday, March 28 Quarterly Meeting and Luncheon with special introduction by Edward G. Rendell, 45th Governor of Pennsylvania.
The event will include the presentation of the 2012 Justice Sonia Sotomayor Diversity Award to members of the Liacouras Committee which was appointed in 1970 to investigate claims of possible discrimination against Black law students in the Pennsylvania Bar admission process. The Committee found that various "practices raise the strongest presumption that Blacks are indeed discriminated against under procedures used by the State Board of Law Examiners."
Members of the Liacouras Committee, appointed by then-Bar Chancellor Robert M. Landis, included Judge Paul A. Dandridge, Judge Clifford Scott Green, Ricardo C. Jackson, Peter J. Liacouras, and W. Bourne Ruthrauff.
"I am very pleased to see these pioneers who opened the door for so many get the recognition they so richly deserve," said Albert S. Dandridge, III, a partner at Schnader Harrison Segal & Lewis LLP, who nominated the Committee for the Award.
The Justice Sonia Sotomayor Diversity Award publicly acknowledges, recognizes and honors an individual or entity that has demonstrated a strong commitment, and has made a substantial contribution, to diversity and promoting full and equal participation and inclusion in the legal profession.
"The Liacouras Committee created a sea change. Before it did its work, the number of African-American attorneys literally fit on one piece of paper – one page. After the Committee did its work, we filled a directory. That is real sustained change," said Danielle Banks, a partner at Stradley Ronon Stevens & Young, LLP and the Chair of the Justice Sonia Sotomayor Diversity Award selection committee.
Also at the event, Immediate-Past Chancellor Rudolph Garcia will be presented with a gold box, an exact replica of the one presented to Andrew Hamilton for his defense of John Peter Zenger in 1735. The gold box is presented annually to the immediate-past Chancellor and is inscribed with the message "acquired not by money, but by character."
The inaugural Justinian Society and Comisky Family Lifetime Achievement Award in memory of Marvin Comisky and Judge G. Fred DiBona will also be presented to retired Philadelphia Court of Common Pleas Judge Edward J. Bradley.
SOURCE Philadelphia Bar Association
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