Join us in Denver in a few weeks at the American Bar Association Annual Meeting where our section, the Section of State and Local Government Law, will be presenting the Jefferson Fordham Awards.
The Jefferson B. Fordham Awards, the highest honors given by the ABA Section of State and Local Government Law, recognize the accomplishments of those who have been active in the various areas of state and local government law. The award is named for the section’s first chair in 1949. Fordham diligently served and made the section the national resource for the advancement of state and local government law practice.The Lifetime Achievement award will be presented to a lawyer that every reader of this blog already knows well, Michael Berger:
Berger, one of the top land use and condemnation attorneys in the United States, is a California lawyer and a senior counsel at Manatt, Phelps & Phillips, in the real estate and the appellate practice. His appellate cases have involved planning, zoning, eminent domain, various kinds of business litigation, landslides, contract, due process, equal protection, defective construction, nuisance, insurance and environmental law. Berger has argued four cases before the United States Supreme Court as well as cases before appellate courts throughout California, numerous federal courts of appeal and other state supreme courts. He is also the frequent author of amicus curiae briefs in various appellate courts, particularly the U.S. Supreme Court, pressing client interests in important pending cases.Also being presented a Jefferson Fordham is a colleague and former student of ours, Makenna Johnson, who will be receiving the Up and Comer Award:Berger has spent more than 50 years as a practicing lawyer, adjunct professor, faculty member at various continuing legal education courses and author of both practical and scholarly articles in the fields of land use and eminent domain law.
Johnson, an associate at Alderman Bernstein in Denver, is the American Bar Association Young Lawyers Division State and Local Government Committee vice chair. She was recently appointed as the Young Lawyers Division State and Local Government Committee chair and liaison to the Section of State and Local Government. She was also recently appointed to the Colorado Bar Association Young Lawyers Division Executive Council. Johnson earned a Bachelor of Arts in political science from the University of Colorado and a J.D. degree from William and Mary Law School.
Please join us in Denver to celebrate.
If you need another excuse to be there, immediately prior to the JF Awards lunch, we're speaking at a CLE session on "The 100th Anniversary of Pennsylvania Coal v. Mahon: How the Takings Clause Became the Primary Check on Government Power When SCOTUS Abandoned Review Under the Due Process and Contracts Clauses During the New Deal." Details on that program here.