2008-08-01 23:05:04 -
www.innsofcourt.org - One of the country's most respected jurists, The Honorable Patrick E. Higginbotham, a judge on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit, has been selected to receive the prestigious American Inns of Court's 2008 Lewis F. Powell, Jr., Award for Professionalism and Ethics. The award will be presented at the American Inns of Court's Celebration of
Excellence, hosted by Justice Samuel A. Alito, Jr., at the United States Supreme Court, on October 11, 2008.
The Powell Award for Professionalism and Ethics is presented annually to recognize a lifetime devoted to the highest standards of ethical practice, competence and professionalism. This award is conferred upon a senior lawyer nominated from among the country's most respected practitioners, judges, government officials, journalists, philanthropists or other community leaders and selected by a panel of representatives from both the judiciary and the American Inns of Court Foundation. Previous winners include former Justices Powell, William J. Brennan, Jr., and Anthony M. Kennedy, and last year, James J. Brosnahan.
Although Judge Higginbotham is on senior status, he maintains a full workload on the court while teaching courses in Constitutional Law and Federal Courts at St. Mary's University School of Law in San Antonio. He has also taught at the University of Texas School of Law, the University of Alabama School of Law, the Dedman School of Law at Southern Methodist University, and Texas Tech University School of law. The law schools at the University of Alabama and Texas Tech University maintain endowed scholarships in his name.
Judge Higginbotham attended the University of Alabama on a tennis scholarship. After receiving a B.A. and an LL.B., he entered the U.S. Air Force as a JAG Corps officer in 1961. From a distinguished career in private practice with Coke and Coke in Dallas, President Ford tapped him to become a federal district court judge in 1975. In 1982, President Reagan appointed him to the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals.
Judge Higginbotham has been a faculty member at the Federal Judicial Center and served as Chair of the Advisory Committee on Civil Rules. He has been a leading proponent and former Chair of the Center for American and International Law, a Dallas-based organization that trains foreign and domestic lawyers and police officers. Judge Higginbotham is also a fellow of the American Bar Association, Chair of its Appellate Judges Conference, a member of the Board of Editors of the ABA Journal, and Advisor to the National Center for State Courts on its study of habeas corpus. He is also a lifetime member of the American Law Institute and a member of the Board of Overseers, Institute of Civil Justice, RAND Corporation.
From 1996 to 2000, Judge Higginbotham served as president of the American Inns of Court Foundation. In 2002, he was the recipient of the A. Sherman Christensen Award, given in the name of the founder of the first American Inn of Court to recognize a member of an American Inn of Court who has provided distinguished, exceptional, and significant leadership to the American Inns of Court movement. Last year, he received the American Inns of Court's 2007 Professionalism Awards for the Fifth Circuit. Judge Higginbotham is the namesake and founder of his Inn, the first American Inn of Court in Dallas. Throughout his life and legal career, Judge Higginbotham has exhibited sterling character and unquestioned integrity, couple with an ongoing dedication to the highest standard of the legal profession and the rule of law, making him exceptionally deserving of this year's Lewis F. Powell, Jr., Award.
The American Inns of Court Foundation, America's oldest, largest and fastest growing mentoring organization presents national awards for excellence each October at the Celebration of Excellence held in the United States Supreme Court. Information about this event and gala banquet may be found at www.innsofcourt.org.
American Inns of Court
David P. Carey
Executive Director
703-684-3590
dcarey@innsofcourt.org 
