Legal News

Awards, Designations and Rankings for Legal Public Relations

By Brian Harris

As one who lives and breathes public relations, I often encourage clients to apply for individual attorney and law firm awards, designations and rankings for which they qualify. There are many awards, designations and rankings in our region and in the legal community that you should keep in mind. Some include those hosted by regional business journals including the Philadelphia Corporate Philanthropy Awards, 40 Under 40, Best Places to Work and Women of Distinction. Others include Risings Stars, The Legal Intelligencer's PaLaw100, Super Lawyers, Best Lawyers and the American Lawyer Hall of Fame, just to name a few.

In fact, bar associations and trade organizations also sponsor several awards each year. Just last week, the Philadelphia Bar Association presented the Sandra Day O?Connor Award to Temple University?s Beasley School of Law President JoAnne Epps.

The Philadelphia Bar Association also announced this week that they will receive the 2009 Harrison Tweed Award, one of the American Bar Association?s most prestigious honors, for its work with the Residential Mortgage Foreclosure Diversion Program.

This program, which has enabled more than 1,000 low-income Philadelphia homeowners to keep their homes, is a collaborative effort between Philadelphia?s courts and judges; city government; borrowers and lenders; credit counseling associations and Philadelphia Bar Association leaders, public interest attorneys, volunteer attorneys and judges pro tem.

According to Judge Annette Rizzo, who co-chairs the Mortgage Foreclosure Steering Committee with former Court of Common Pleas President Judge C. Darnell Jones, ?The Philadelphia Bar Association has shown unparalleled leadership in responding to a most pressing need.?

Chancellor Sayde Ladov said, ?There is no higher accolade than winning the Harrison Tweed award. It exemplifies the spirit of cooperation between bench and bar and honors the work of all involved.?

For those of you attending the ABA Annual Meeting in Chicago (which is also a great opportunity to network), the award will be formally presented July 31 during a joint luncheon of the National Conference of Bar Presidents, National Association of Bar Executives and National Conference of Bar Foundations.

Gina F. Rubel, Esq.
Furia Rubel Communications, Inc.
http://www.furiarubel.com

Full post as published by The Legal Intelligencer Blog on June 17, 2009 (boomark / email).