HON. ARNETTE R. HUBBARD
Judge Arnette R. Hubbard is the recipient of the 2020 National Bar Association Life-time achievement award. In 1981, Judge Hubbard became the first female president of the National Bar Association. Also, in 2020 Cook County Circuit Judge Hubbard received the Living Legends Award presented by the Cook County Bar Association at an event celebrating her career. Judge Hubbard served as the first African American female President of the Cook County Bar Association and the first African American female to serve on the Chicago Board of Elections for three consecutive three-year terms.
HON. RANDA TRAPP MAKES HISTORY IN THE SAN DIEGO JUDICIARY
In 2003, Judge Randa Trapp made history when she became the third African American woman ever appointed to the San Diego Superior Court. With 135 judges, the San Diego Superior Court is the second largest court system in California and the third largest in the nation. On January 1, 2020, Presiding Judge Lorna Alksne selected Hon. Randa Trapp to be the Supervising Judge of the Court’s Civil Division. In 2009 when she joined the civil division, Judge Trapp made history as the first and only African American judge in the Division and she now becomes the first African American Supervising Judge of the Civil Division and the first African American woman to become a supervising judge.
HON. DENISE LANGFORD MORRIS
Judge Denise Langford Morris award recipient of the 2020 MLK JR. Award presented by the State of Michigan Democratic Party. Judge Langford Morris is the first African American woman nominated by any party to run statewide for the Michigan Supreme Court. Hon. Denise Langford Morris was appointed to the Oakland County Circuit Court in August 1992, elected in 1994, and reelected in 2000, 2006, and 2012. She is the Oakland County’s first African American circuit court judge and dean of the bench. In 2019 Judge Langford Morris became the first person of color and first woman ever to have a portrait hung in the University of Detroit Mercy School of Law.
HON. BERNICE DONALD LIBERTY ACHIEVEMENT AWARD RECIPIENT 2020
The Liberty Achievement Award was created to honor those attorneys and judges who take a leadership role in promoting diversity in the profession of law by demonstrating, through choices made in their careers and work done in private and/or public sector positions, that they have actively promoted diversity. Hon. Bernice Donald is a Judge on the United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit. She was nominated to that position by President Barack Obama. Prior to that, Judge Donald sat on the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Tennessee appointed by President William Jefferson Clinton. She previously served as Judge of U.S.
Bankruptcy Court for the Western District of Tennessee, becoming the first African American woman in the history of the United States to serve as a bankruptcy judge. In 1982, she became the first African American woman to serve as a judge (General Sessions Criminal Court) in the history of the State of Tennessee.
The award will be presented virtually to Judge Bernice Donald at 4:30p EDT on September 16, 2020, via Zoom conference.
HON. WAVNY TOUSSAINT
In 2020, Justice Wavny Toussaint was appointed Associate Justice of the Appellate Term for the 2nd, 11th and 13th Judicial Districts. She hears appeals from cases from the Criminal Court, the Civil Court, Small Claims and Housing courts. In 2002, Justice Toussaint became the first Trinidadian-American to be elected to office in New York State. In 2010, then-Judge Toussaint was assigned as an acting Supreme Court justice. In 2014, she was elected as a Kings County Supreme Court Justice.
HON. TANYA R. KENNEDY
In 2020, Hon. Tanya R. Kennedy was appointed as an Associate Justice of the Appellate Division, First Department by Governor Andrew M. Cuomo. Justice Kennedy has served as a Justice of the Supreme Court, New York County, since January 2016, after election in November 2015. She was elected to Civil Court in November 2005 and thereafter served in Criminal Court (January 2006-September 2008), Civil Court (September 2008-December 2009), Family Court (January 2010-December 2010), as Acting Supreme Court Justice (January 2011-December 2012) and as Supervising Judge of Civil Court, New York Count (January 2014-December 2015).