Latest news with #American@InnsofCourtProfessionalismAward
Business Wire
28-07-2025
- Business
- Business Wire
Judge Patricia Breckenridge (Ret.) to Receive the 2025 American Inns of Court Professionalism Award for the Eighth Circuit
ALEXANDRIA, Va.--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- Patricia Breckenridge has been selected to receive the prestigious 2025 American Inns of Court Professionalism Award for the Eighth Circuit. Breckenridge was a judge on the Supreme Court of Missouri from 2007 until her retirement in 2023 and served as chief justice from 2015 to 2017. She will receive the award from Judge Duane Benton at the Eighth Circuit Judicial Conference in Kansas City, Missouri, in August. Judge Patricia Breckenridge (Ret.), selected to receive prestigious 2025 American @InnsofCourt Professionalism Award for the 8th Circuit. #InnsofCourt #mizzou #MizzouAlumni #MizzouLaw Share 'As a member of our state's highest court for over 15 years, she worked tirelessly to improve Missourians' lives….,' writes Willie J. Epps Jr., chief magistrate judge for the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Missouri, who nominated Breckenridge for the award. Breckenridge earned an undergraduate degree with honors in agricultural economics from the University of Missouri-Columbia in 1975, then earned her law degree from the university in 1977. She then practiced law with her father and husband in the firm Russell, Brown, Bickel and Breckenridge in her hometown of Nevada, Missouri. Breckenridge's judicial career began even as she was practicing law. From 1979 to 1982, she also served as the town's assistant municipal judge. Soon after, she was appointed as associate circuit judge for Vernon County, becoming the first woman to serve in the position. In 1990, Breckenridge was appointed to the Missouri Court of Appeals for the Western District, becoming only the second woman to serve. In 2007, she was appointed to the Supreme Court of Missouri. During her tenure as chief justice, she was appointed to serve on the National Center for State Courts National Task Force on Fines, Fees, and Bail Practices, which gave her a platform for improving the administration of justice nationwide. In 2019, Breckenridge received the organization's Distinguished Service Award for Appellate Judges. Breckenridge has also been active in the nonprofit world. She co-founded the Council for Families in Crisis, for example, which offered a hotline, a support group for abuse victims, anger management counseling, and then established a battered women's shelter in Nevada, Missouri, that has existed for more than 35 years. Breckenridge has mentored four sisters for 27 years through Operation Breakthrough, a nonprofit childcare provider and after-school program that serves low-income children in Kansas City, Missouri. Breckenridge has been a member of the Elwood L. Thomas American Inn of Court since 2012. She served as president of the Association of Probate and Associate Circuit Judges from 1990 to 1991. The American Inns of Court, headquartered in Alexandria, Virginia, inspires the legal community to advance the rule of law by achieving the highest level of professionalism through example, education, and mentoring. The organization's membership includes more than 30,000 federal, state, and local judges; lawyers; law professors; and law students in more than 350 chapters nationwide. More information is available at
Business Wire
14-07-2025
- Business
- Business Wire
Justice Patricia Bamattre-Manoukian to Receive the 2025 American Inns of Court Professionalism Award for the Ninth Circuit
ALEXANDRIA, Va.--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- Patricia Bamattre-Manoukian has been selected to receive the prestigious 2025 American Inns of Court Professionalism Award for the Ninth Circuit. Bamattre-Manoukian has been an associate justice for the California Court of Appeal's Sixth Appellate District since 1989. She will receive the award from Chief Judge Mary H. Murguia and Judge Consuelo M. Callahan at the Ninth Circuit Judicial Conference. Justice Patricia Bamattre-Manoukian, Ret., selected to receive prestigious 2025 American @InnsofCourt Professionalism Award for the 9th Circuit. #InnsofCourt #UCLA #USC #loyolalawschool #9thCircuit Share Bamattre-Manoukian is also a past president of the Honorable William A. Ingram American Inn of Court, whose members cited her devotion to mentoring others in nominating her for the award. 'I once heard her speak at a mentoring program about how people had extended a hand to her in reaching her professional goals and how she decided that she would conduct herself in the same way by always extending a hand back to help others,' writes Judge Helen E. Williams, current president of the Ingram Inn of Court, who nominated Bamattre-Manoukian. 'She lives that commitment.' A member of the Ingram Inn since 1999, Bamattre-Manoukian served as the Inn's president from 2006 to 2008. She has served as an Executive Committee member for more than two decades. Bamattre-Manoukian began her career as a deputy district attorney in the Orange County District Attorney's Office, becoming one of the first women to prosecute homicides in that office. After just six years, she became a judge for the Orange County Municipal Court. After relocating to the Bay Area in 1985, she was appointed to the Santa Clara County Municipal Court. She was then elevated to the Santa Clara County Superior Court in 1988 and served as the court's family law supervising judge in 1989. That year, the governor appointed her to her role as an associate justice of the California Court of Appeal, Sixth Appellate District, making her the court's first woman justice. Bamattre-Manoukian cochaired the Santa Clara County Bar Association's Appellate Courts Committee with Judge Williams from 2004 to 2005. In that role, she created many education programs to fill a gap in appellate specialization education credits. Bamattre-Manoukian earned an undergraduate degree in political science and psychology from the University of California Los Angeles in 1972, then earned a master's degree in public administration from the University of Southern California in 1974. She earned her law degree in 1977 from Loyola Law School, Los Angeles. She also has a doctorate in public administration from the University of Southern California, which she was awarded in 1989. The American Inns of Court, headquartered in Alexandria, Virginia, inspires the legal community to advance the rule of law by achieving the highest level of professionalism through example, education, and mentoring. The organization's membership includes more than 30,000 federal, state, and local judges; lawyers; law professors; and law students in more than 350 chapters nationwide. More information is available at
Business Wire
20-06-2025
- Business
- Business Wire
Judge Andrea Leahy to Receive the 2025 American Inns of Court Fourth Circuit Professionalism Award
ALEXANDRIA, Va.--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- Andrea Leahy has been selected to receive the prestigious 2025 American Inns of Court Professionalism Award for the Fourth Circuit. Leahy is an associate judge at large in the Appellate Court of Maryland. Judge Andrea Leahy, selected to receive prestigious 2025 American @InnsofCourt Professionalism Award for the 4th Circuit. #InnsofCourt Share Leahy was appointed to the Appellate Court in 2014. She is chair-elect of the Judicial Ethics Committee and a member of the Judicial Transparency and Access Workgroup. She was a member of the Legislative Committee, the Specialty Courts and Dockets Committee, and subcommittees focused on mental health, alcoholism and addictions, and behavioral health. One of Leahy's most recent contributions to Maryland's legal community is her work to establish the Cole-Davidson American Inn of Court, in Annapolis. Leahy chaired the organizing committee for the Inn, which was established in 2022. '[W]ithout her, there would be no appellate Inn in Maryland,' writes Senior Judge (Ret.) Ima S. Raker of the Supreme Court of Maryland, who nominated her former law school student for the award. From 2018 to 2019, Leahy served as president of the Hon. James McGill American Inn of Court in Columbia, Maryland. She was a member of the J. Dudley Digges American Inn of Court in Baltimore from 2002 to 2014. Leahy began her career as an assistant county attorney in Prince George's County Office of Law, where she met County Executive Parris Glendening. When Glendening was elected Maryland's governor in 1995, he hired Leahy as his chief legal counsel. After five years of advising the governor, Leahy became an assistant U.S. attorney for the District of Maryland. Before becoming a judge, she was of counsel in the Business Litigation Division of Whiteford, Taylor & Preston LLP from 2001 to 2006 and as a managing member of Leahy & DeSmet LLC from 2006 to 2014. Leahy is active within the legal community. A member of the Maryland State Bar Association, she is a fellow of the Maryland Bar Association and the American Bar Foundation. Leahy also chaired a project that brought judges, lawyers, and academics together to uncover and publish the history of women in Maryland law. The project culminated in the book Finding Justice: A History of Women Lawyers in Maryland Since 1642. Leahy earned undergraduate degrees in music and politics from The Catholic University of America in 1983, then spent a summer as a guest student at Mozarteum University's music academy in Salzburg, Austria. Leahy earned her law degree in 1987 from American University's Washington College of Law. The American Inns of Court, headquartered in Alexandria, Virginia, inspires the legal community to advance the rule of law by achieving the highest level of professionalism through example, education, and mentoring. The organization's membership includes more than 30,000 federal, state, and local judges; lawyers; law professors; and law students in more than 350 chapters nationwide. More information is available at
