John D. Lawson Award

John Davison Lawson (Photo courtesy of University of Missouri, School of Law)

The Canadian American Bar Association announced the establishment of the annual John D. Lawson award on August 2, 2010.  The awared recognizes Canadians who have excelled in the practice of law and/or made an outstanding contribution to the law or legal scholarship in the U.S.

The award is named after John D. Lawson, who was born in Hamilton in 1852 and graduated from Osgoode Hall in 1875 before embarking on a remarkable legal career in the United States. Between 1876 and his death in 1922 he was a noted practitioner, law reformer and judge, a prolific and widelyrespected treatise writer and national bar journal editor, a law professor and dean, one of the founding members of the Association of American Law Schools and a leader of the International Law Association. While working in Missouri, New Jersey and California he always maintained close ties to Canada and his home province and to this day remains a model of Canadian legal success south of the 49th.

Past Recipients

2015. Professor Bernard Hibbitts.  See announcement here. 

2011. Governor Jennifer Granholm

Governor Granholm was born in British Columbia, Canada, graduated from the University of California, Berkeley with a degree in Political Science and French and then received her J.D. from Harvard University. She was elected Attorney General of Michigan in 1998, becoming the first woman to hold that position (1999-2003), following which she was elected the first woman Governor of Michigan for two successive terms (2003-2011). After leaving office due to term limits, Governor Granholm took a position at the University of California, Berkeley and with her husband, Daniel Mulhern, co-authored “A Governor’s Story: The Fight for Jobs and America’s Future”, released in September 2011. Governor Granholm is a regular contributor to NBC’s political talk show, “Meet the Press” and is host of the new Current TV’s political program “The War Room with Jennifer Granholm”.It is with great pleasure that we congratulate Governor Granholm for her outstanding accomplishments and continuing work in the fields of law, legal scholarship and social justice.

2010.  Jonathan Anschell, Executive Vice President, General Counsel of CBS Television, and Senior Vice President, Deputy General Counsel of CBS Corporation.  See announcement here.