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Release Date: Fri 22-Mar-2002
Contact: Alicia MacLeay (anmaclea@colby.edu)
Phone: 207-872-3220

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Judge Ann Claire Williams To Receive the Second Morton Brody Judicial Service Award April 1 at Colby

United States Circuit Judge Ann Claire Williams of Chicago will deliver a lecture at Colby College in Waterville on Monday, April 1, as the 2002 recipient of the Morton A. Brody Distinguished Judicial Service Award. Judge Williams, a pioneering African-American jurist, will receive the award, as well as an honorary doctor of laws degree, and will deliver the 8 p.m. lecture in room 5 of the Arey Life Sciences Building.

The Morton A. Brody Distinguished Judicial Service Award was established to recognize a federal or state judge who demonstrates the qualities of integrity, compassion, humanity and judicial excellence--all qualities exhibited by the Honorable Morton Brody, a U.S. District Court judge in Maine who passed away in March 2000. Brody, a long-time Waterville resident, had taught courses at Colby on the judicial system and was a friend of the College for many years.

Judge Williams began her career as a teacher in inner-city Detroit. After earning her law degree from Notre Dame University in 1975 she began her trailblazing legal career as a law clerk in the United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit. From 1967 to 1985 Williams worked as an Assistant U.S. Attorney in Chicago trying major felony cases. In 1985 Williams was the first African-American woman appointed U.S. District Court Judge for the Northern District of Illinois and became one of the youngest persons ever appointed to an Article III federal judgeship. In 1999 Williams became the first African American appointed to the United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit and the third African-American woman to serve on any federal appeals court. Since 1999 she has served as president of the Federal Judges Association and in 2000 she received Chicago Lawyer's Person of the Year award.

In 1977 Williams co-founded Minority Legal Education Resources to help teach minority and other lawyers how to pass the Illinois bar. In 1993 she co-founded Just the Beginning Foundation, dedicated to celebrating the contributions of African-American federal judges. In 2002 she was elected to the Board of the National Association for Public Interest Law, which funds post-graduate fellowships for public interest agencies and organizations.

The Brody Award selection committee is chaired by Brock Hornby, chief judge of the Federal District Court in Maine, and includes distinguished active and retired judges, lawyers, legal educators, representatives of the College and a member of the Brody family. A Web site for the award is located at www.colby.edu/brody.


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