Obama’s Milestone Cited Throughout Bar Diversity Awards Program

The presentation of Spirit of Excellence Awards recognizing the efforts of lawyers to advance diversity in the profession has been a highlight of ABA midyear meetings ever since they were introduced in 1996.

But this year’s awards luncheon had a special glow to it. The reason? Barack Obama.

Obama’s election in November as the first African-American president of the United States was cited by just about every one of this year’s class of seven award winners as a milestone in the long struggle to bring diversity to the legal profession and American society. But it also was an achievement that the recipients described with a note of cautious optimism.

“I do believe this nation of ours has turned a corner,” said award recipient Daniel Sosa Jr., the retired chief justice of the New Mexico Supreme Court. “We have shown the world we’re a great nation that will accept a person for their character and not their color.”

William A. Von Hoene Jr., who received the corporate award for his efforts to advance diversity as executive vice president and general counsel of Exelon Corp. in Chicago, also referred to Obama’s election as a significant step. “We should celebrate our progress,” said Von Hoene. “Nonetheless, it is imperative that we celebrate with an appreciation of the work yet to be done.”

The luncheon honoring the recipients was held earlier today during the 2009 ABA Midyear Meeting in Boston. The Spirit of Excellence Awards are sponsored by the Commission on Racial and Ethnic Diversity in the Profession.

Colleen Hanabusa, who in 2006 became the first woman to lead either chamber in the Hawaii legislature when she was elected president of the Senate, said her state’s claim to Obama as a native son—he was born, raised and educated in the islands—trumps his mainland roots in Chicago.

“Anyone from Illinois can just get in back of us,” said Hanabusa, who was draped in leis presented by several bar groups from back home. “We claim him as our own.”

While expressing gratitude for her award, Hanabusa, added, “I hope one day that awards like this won’t be necessary.” But for now, “They’re a reminder of where we are today, and what still needs to be done.”

The other 2009 recipients of the Spirit of Excellence Awards are:

• Julius L. Chambers, a founding member of Ferguson Stein Chambers Gresham and Sumter in Charlotte, N.C. Chambers was involved in a number of notable civil rights cases as a private practitioner and as director-counsel of the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund in New York City.

• Joan Mei Haratani, a partner at Morgan, Lewis & Bockius in San Francisco, who was the first woman of color to serve as president of the Bar Association in San Francisco.

• Charles J. Ogletree Jr., a professor and director of the Charles Hamilton Houston Institute for Race and Justice at Harvard Law School, where he mentored Barack and Michelle Obama when they were students. “I’m please to see them doing so well,” he said.

• Richard A. Soden, of counsel to Goodwin Procter in Boston, who currently serves as a minority member-at-large on the ABA Board of Governors.