Awards & Award Recipients
Awards & Award Recipients
Board of Governor Awards
Distinguished Service Award
The Distinguished Service Award honors an attorney for outstanding service to the membership of the Alaska Bar Association.
2025 Distinguished Service Award Recipient – Michael McLaughlin
Professionalism Award
The Professionalism Award recognizes an attorney who exemplifies the attributes of the true professional, whose conduct is always consistent with the highest standards of practice, and who displays appropriate courtesy and respect for clients and other attorneys. The Professionalism award has traditionally been presented to an attorney in the judicial district where the convention is being held.
2025 Professionalism Award Recipient – Katherine Demarest
Robert K. Hickerson Public Service Award
The Robert K. Hickerson Public Service Award recognizes lifetime achievement for outstanding dedication and service in the State of Alaska in providing pro bono legal services or legal services to low-income or indigent persons.
2025 Robert K. Hickerson Public Service Award Recipient – Heather Kendall-Miller
Layperson Service Award
The Layperson Service Award honors a public member for distinguished service to the membership of the Alaska Bar Association.
2025 Layperson Service Award Recipient – Deborah Engles
Honorary Bar Member
2025 Honorary Bar Member Recipient – No award given
Judge Nora Guinn Award
The Judge Nora Guinn Award is presented to a person who has made an extraordinary or sustained effort to assist Alaska’s rural residents, especially its Native population, overcome language and cultural barriers to obtaining justice through the legal system.
2025 Judge Nora Guinn Award Recipient – Nicole Borromeo
Bryan P. Timbers Pro Bono Awards
Pro Bono Awards: Alaska’s legal services providers – Alaska Pro Bono Program, Alaska Legal Services Corporation, Alaska Network on Domestic Violence and Sexual Assault, and the Pro Bono Asylum Project – select each year a private practitioner and a firm that has donated extraordinary time, resources, and talents to pro bono efforts in Alaska. Click here to read the speech presented by Chief Justice Carney.
Lifetime Achievement
2025 Lifetime Achievement –Stephanie Rhoades
Individual Attorney
2025 Individual Attorney – Eric Glatt
Law Firm
2025 Law Firm – Ashburn & Mason
Court Community Outreach Award
View a historical list of the Court Community Outreach Awards.
Additional Awards
The Rabinowitz Public Service Award is given each year by the Board of Trustees of the Alaska Bar Foundation to the individual whose life work has demonstrated a commitment to public service in the State of Alaska. The Award is funded through generous gifts from the public in honor of the late Alaska Supreme Court Justice Jay Rabinowitz.
2025 Alaska Bar Foundation Jay Rabinowitz Public Service Award Recipient – Douglas B. Baily
2021 Anchorage Bar Association Ben Walters’ Award Recipient – Bill Coppel and Natalie Finn
The International Law Section Human Rights Award recognizes an Alaska Bar member who has helped advance the field of human rights in international law, either locally or abroad.
