The American Bar Association Medal (or ABA Medal) is the highest award given by the American Bar Association for "exceptionally distinguished service by a lawyer or lawyers to the cause of American jurisprudence."[1] The ABA Board of Governors chooses the medal's recipient. The medal was authorized at the 50th anniversary meeting of the ABA in 1928.[2] The first medal was given in 1929 and it has been given most, but not all, years since.
The medal itself was designed by Laura Gardin Fraser.[3] It is four inches in diameter, made of 24K gold, later reduced to 14K gold. On the obverse is a profile of John Marshall with the inscription "To the end it may be a government of laws and not of men," from the Constitution of Massachusetts. On the reverse is "Justitia" with a likeness of Lady Justice.[2]
List of recipients
- Source: "Recipients of the American Bar Association Medal" at the American Bar Association website
 
- 1929 Samuel Williston
 - 1930 Elihu Root
 - 1931 Oliver Wendel Holmes
 - 1932 John Henry Wigmore
 - 1934 George Woodward Wickersham
 - 1938 Herbert Harley
 - 1939 Edgar Bronson Tolman
 - 1940 Roscoe Pound
 - 1941 George Wharton Pepper
 - 1942 Charles Evans Hughes
 - 1943 John J. Parker
 - 1944 Hatton W. Sumners
 - 1946 Carl McFarland
 - 1947 William L. Ransom
 - 1948 Arthur T. Vanderbilt
 - 1950 Orie L. Phillips
 - 1951 Reginald Heber Smith
 - 1952 Harrison Tweed
 - 1953 Frank E. Holman
 - 1954 George Maurice Morris
 - 1956 Robert G. Storey
 - 1957 William Clarke Mason
 - 1958 E. Smythe Gambrell
 - 1959 Greenville Clark
 - 1960 William A. Schnader
 - 1961 Jacob Mark Lashly
 - 1962 Tom C. Clark
 - 1963 Felix Frankfurter
 - 1964 Henry S. Drinker
 - 1965 Edmund M. Morgan
 - 1966 Charles S. Rhyne
 - 1967 Roger J. Traynor
 - 1968 J. Edward Lumbard
 - 1969 Walter V. Schaefer
 - 1970 Frank C. Haymond
 - 1971 Whitney North Seymour
 - 1972 Harold Gallagher
 - 1973 William James Jameson
 - 1974 Ross L. Malone
 - 1975 Leon Jaworski
 - 1976 Bernard G. Segal
 - 1977 Edward L. Wright
 - 1978 Erwin N. Griswold
 - 1979 Lewis F. Powell Jr.
 - 1981 Chesterfield Smith
 - 1982 Earl F. Morris
 - 1984 Robert W. Meserve
 - 1986 Justin A. Stanley
 - 1987 Warren E. Burger
 - 1988 F. Wm. McCalpin
 - 1989 Wm. Reece Smith Jr.
 - 1990 A. Sherman Christensen
 - 1991 Robert B. McKay
 - 1992 Thurgood Marshall
 - 1993 Randolph W. Thrower
 - 1994 William J. Brennan Jr.
 - 1995 Shirley M. Hufstedler
 - 1996 John Minor Wisdom
 - 1997 Sandra Day O'Connor
 - 1998 Morris Harrell
 - 1999 John H. Pickering
 - 2000 Oliver W. Hill
 - 2001 Robert MacCrate
 - 2002 William H. Webster
 - 2003 Talbot "Sandy" D'Alemberte
 - 2004 Father Robert F. Drinan
 - 2005 George Leighton
 - 2006 Jerome J. Shestack
 - 2007 Anthony M. Kennedy
 - 2008 Patricia M. Wald
 - 2009 William H. Gates Sr.
 - 2010 Ruth Bader Ginsburg
 - 2011 David Boies and Theodore B. Olson
 - 2012 Morris Seligman Dees Jr.
 - 2013 Hillary Clinton
 - 2014 General Earl E. Anderson
 - 2015 Roberta Cooper Ramo
 - 2016 Dennis Archer
 - 2017 John Feerick
 - 2018 Bryan Stevenson
 - 2019 Dale Minami
 - 2020 William H. Neukom
 
References
- ↑ "2014 ABA Medal to honor retired Gen. Earl E. Anderson". American Bar Association. July 2014. Retrieved 2016-01-11.
 - 1 2 "The American Bar Association Medal". ABA Journal. 39: 697–700. August 1953.
 - ↑ "James Earle and Laura Gardin Fraser Papers". Syracuse University Library. Retrieved 2016-01-02.