The Honorable Barbara D. Underwood to Receive the 2012 American Inns of Court Professionalism Award for the Second Circuit

ALEXANDRIA, Va.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--The Honorable Barbara D. Underwood has been selected to receive the 2012 American Inns of Court Professionalism Award for the Second Circuit. The award will be presented by Judge Carl E. Stewart on Wednesday, October 3, 2012 at the Daniel Patrick Moynihan U.S. Courthouse in New York, New York.

Underwood is the current New York Solicitor General and brings to the position experience as an appellate advocate, valuable insight, and a quest for fair and honest justice. She was originally appointed to the position in 2007 by New York Solicitor General Andrew Cuomo and reappointed in 2011 by New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman. Previously, Underwood was Acting Solicitor General of the United States from January to June of 2001, and Principal Deputy Solicitor General, appointed by U.S. Attorney General Janet Reno, from 1998–2001.

Underwood holds an A.B. magna cum laude from Harvard College and a J.D. from Georgetown University Law Center. After graduating from law school, she clerked for Chief Judge David L. Bazelon of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia and Associate Justice Thurgood Marshall of the Supreme Court of the United States.

Upon leaving the court, Underwood was a professor for 10 years at Yale Law School. She has also taught at Brooklyn Law School and at the New York University School of Law. Throughout her career she has served as a teacher, mentor, and advisor; argued many cases in the state and federal appellate courts; and supervised many more. She is widely regarded as a first-rate lawyer, advisor, and appellate advocate.

The Second Circuit Professionalism Award honors a quintessential mentor, recognizing a fundamental value of the profession to which the American Inns of Court is dedicated. The honoree is a senior lawyer who for a generation or more has taught, supervised, and mentored developing practitioners in government, private practice, or public service, by word and by example. He or she is a “lawyer’s lawyer”—a master of the craft—whose life and work reflect civility, competence, and ethical behavior. The Second Circuit Award honors the unsung, unheralded mentor in New York, Connecticut, or Vermont whose recognition by peers in the legal profession is overdue. Candidates are drawn from open nominations and selected by a panel of representatives from both the circuit and the American Inns of Court.

The American Inns of Court, headquartered in Alexandria, Virginia, fosters excellence in professionalism, ethics, civility, and legal skills. The organization’s membership includes more than 28,000 federal, state, and local judges; lawyers; law professors; and law students in more than 350 chapters nationwide and more than 85,000 alumni members. The Professionalism Awards are presented on a circuit basis nationwide. The awards are underwritten in part by Thomson Reuters. More information is available at www.innsofcourt.org.