Professionlism Page
| Publication year | 2022 |
| Pages | 0070 |
| Citation | Vol. 27 No. 6 Pg. 0070 |
22nd Annual Justice Robert Benham Awards for Community Service
The Chief Justice's Commission on Professionalism is pleased to recognize lawyers and judges who have made significant contributions to their communities and who demonstrate the positive contributions of members of the Bar beyond their legal or official work.
BY KARLISE Y. GRIER
The idea that community service is a component of professionalism has existed as long as the Chief Justice's Commission on Professionalism (Commission) has existed. In a May 1989 article, former Supreme Court of Georgia Chief Justice Harold G. Clarke discussed the relationship between community service and professionalism as a debt that lawyers owed to society.[1] Justice Clarke posited, "Each lawyer owes a debt to the client, the law, the system of justice, fellow lawyers, and the public."[2] He then asserted, "The last and perhaps most important debt to be discussed is the one owed to the public. Professionalism burdens lawyers with a duty to serve and to lead. The grand tradition of the legal profession insists that lawyers not shrink from leadership roles. By nature and training, lawyers possess qualities which uniquely fit them for positions of leadership in both the public and private sector."[3]
On March 19, the Commission recognized those lawyers who in the grand tradition of the legal profession have offered themselves for service and leadership at the 22nd Annual Justice Robert Benham Awards for Community Service. Since 1998, the Commission has presented the awards to honor lawyers and judges in Georgia who have made significant contributions to their communities and who demonstrate the positive contributions of members of the Bar beyond their legal or official work. Service may be made in any field, including but not limited to: social service, education, faith-based efforts, sports, recreation, the arts or politics. The selection committee generally believes that community or public service is not service to a bar association; however, community service can be done through bar-sponsored or related activities or projects.
Award Recognition
Awards are presented to selected attorneys in the judicial districts of Georgia from which nominations are received. The 2022 award recipients were Lindsay Beth Gardner, managing attorney, Georgia Bureau of Investigation, Marietta; Michael D. St. Amand, partner, Gray...
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