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Advancement of Women in the Legal Profession, and in so doing, he became the first man to ever win that award.
We have another male inductee who worked to advance the rights of women when he successfully prosecuted the boys in his fourth-grade class who had evicted the girls from their le- gitimately possessed four-square square.
The advocacy of this inductee class is truly remarkable. It in- cludes a person named the “Kentucky Defense Lawyer of the Year.” Traveling north, we have an awardee of the highest hon- or given by the Canadian Defense Lawyers in recognition of
contributions to the growth and development of the legal pro- fession in Canada.
We have a New York trial lawyer who has handled both plain- tiff’s cases and criminal defendants and according to a major newspaper represented the most infamous criminals in Buffalo of all time. On the other side of the aisle we have a Chief Depu- ty D.A. out of Las Vegas who has dedicated his career to seeking justice for murder victims and in that pursuit he has tried over sixty-seven murder trials. Actually, that fact is from January so I suppose he’s probably tried a few murders since then.
Our inductees include lawyers active in pro bono work, in- cluding pro bono death penalty work. One inductee represents an American multi-national oil and gas corporation and I’ll give you a hint as to which one - it’s the largest direct descen- dant of John D. Rockefeller’s Standard Oil. Okay, hearing no ideas, I’ll give you another hint: It rhymes with Rexxon Robile.
By way of anecdotes and important cases, we have one in- ductee who wrote, “I had a federal jury trial, which included a cross-examination of the devil himself.” Another inductee represented an elected official who was attacked in his own backyard by a neighbor and that inductee was successful in ob- taining a substantial verdict and in collecting it, which I hear is important in PI work.
After trial, one inductee received a jury question during de- liberation that read, “Can we have a calculator,” and that jury returned the largest verdict that had ever been received in that county at the time.
Forbes named one of our inductees “The Woman Wall Street Fears the Most,” for her recovery of over $20 billion in cash and additional billions in mortgage servicing reforms from some of the largest financial institutions in the United States. I really admire that. I don’t think anybody fears me at all, in- cluding my own children.
Our inductees include a lawyer who has three children under the ages of six and she tried a three-month long jury trial just last year and, as far as I understand it, she didn’t send any of them away; she kept the children in her own home.
Another inductee set internationally recognized aviation world speed records with each one of three children on their first birthdays.
A number of our inductees our athletes. We have a marathon- er who has run twenty-seven of them, another who’s run for- ty-two; plus two Boston marathoners, an ultra-marathoner, and a triathlete. It’s exhausting just thinking about those in- ductees. One inductee is a former collegiate boxer and another is a member of the U.S. Rugby Hall of Fame.
Among our members is a Pennsylvania State Swimming champion and one inductee is a member of the Newfound- land and Labrador Tennis Hall of Fame. One inductee has a professional soccer player child and a second child who is a manager at U.S. Soccer. Ask me later if you’d like a list of the people who you should not challenge to a game of pickleball.
We have some very competitive athletes in this class. And if you ignore my advice and challenge our tennis hall of famer to a game of pickleball and you injure yourself, but you are from Canada, I will give you the name of an inductee who has suc- cessfully challenged jurisdiction laws allowing injured parties the right to bring a claim in their home country when they’ve been injured on vacation.
We have an inductee who was a talented salt-water fly fisher- man who grand slammed in Cuba, which I’m going to take some time to explain because I’m from a family of salt-water fishermen and this is very important. He landed a tarpon, a bonefish, and a permit on the same day and this same gentle- man trains Labrador Retrievers to hunt and he provides pro bono services for those who seek to adopt. He’s a Texan, not surprisingly. You can probably find him here tonight wearing a cowboy hat with his tuxedo and his closing arguments prob- ably read like Willie Nelson songs.
Regarding service to our community, our inductees teach at law schools and one endowed a very successful trial advocacy workshop in New Jersey. We have a former public defender who now serves on the Board of the New Hampshire Associa- tion of Criminal Defense Lawyers.
We have an inductee who devotes charity work and resources to Secret Santa and another who with his spouse founded an organization involved in community development in West Af- rica. We have a former Peace Corps member in our midst and another inductee who has served for the past five years as his local public school board president helping create peace and foster education during the divisive issues that faced schools during COVID.
We have a former president of the Nova Scotia Advisory Council on the Status of Women and she’s also dedicated many years to assisting women and children fleeing intimate partner violence.
We have a former president of the Board of the Florentine Opera Company and so, in closing, I’m going to sing the U.S. National Anthem acapella. Just kidding. But one of our in- ductees actually does that at sporting events and I’ve heard does it quite well.