U.S. Supreme Court Associate Justice Sonia Sotomayor to Receive Philadelphia Bar Association Diversity Award at March 11 Luncheon

PHILADELPHIA, March 10, 2011 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- United States Supreme Court Associate Justice Sonia Sotomayor, the Court's first Hispanic justice, will be presented with the Philadelphia Bar Association's Diversity Award by the Association's first Hispanic Chancellor, Rudolph Garcia, at its Quarterly Meeting and Luncheon tomorrow (Friday, March 11) at 12 p.m. at the Hyatt at The Bellevue, Broad and Walnut streets, in Philadelphia.

The award will be renamed the Justice Sonia Sotomayor Diversity Award, "to add immeasurably to the prestige of the award and the incentive it will provide to make real progress throughout the Philadelphia legal community," Garcia said.

"Throughout her entire career, Justice Sotomayor has demonstrated an unwavering commitment to diversity and equal justice for all Americans," Garcia said. "As the first Hispanic justice, nominated by the first African-American president, she embodies the ideals of diversity and shines like a beacon of hope for others in our profession."

Justice Sotomayor was nominated to the U.S. Supreme Court by President Obama on May 26, 2009, and was sworn in to the nation's highest court on Aug. 8, 2009. The Bronx, N.Y., native and Yale Law School graduate was an assistant district attorney in New York City from 1979 to 1984. She worked in private practice from 1984 to 1992. She was nominated by President George H. W. Bush to the U.S. District Court, Southern District of New York in 1991 and sat on that court from 1992 to 1998. Justice Sotomayor was a judge on the U.S.  Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit from 1998 to 2009. She was also a lecturer at Columbia University Law School and an adjunct professor at New York University Law School.

Also at the event, the Philadelphia Bar Association's Immediate-Past Chancellor Scott F. Cooper will be presented with a gold box, an exact replica of the one presented to Andrew Hamilton for his defense of printer 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."

SOURCE Philadelphia Bar Association