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2003 Law Alumni Association Awards and Honorary Order of the Coif
AUSTIN, Texas — This Spring the Law Alumni Association will honor four 2003 Law Alumni Association members for their outstanding work. E. William Barnett, '58, received the Lifetime Achievement award; Shannon H. Ratliff, '64, was named the Outstanding Alumnus of the year; The Honorable Sam A. Lindsay, '77, was awarded the Distinguished Alumnus for Community Service, and Joe Long, '58, was awarded Honorary Order of the Coif.
"It is a privilege for us to honor Bill Barnett, Sam Lindsay, Shannon Ratliff, and Joe Long. Each in their own way, these alumni of UT Law School have made an indelible mark on the law, the profession, and their communities. We are proud of their achievements, and proud to call them friends," Dean Bill Powers said.
Bill Barnett graduated with an LL.B. with honors in 1958, and was a member of the Chancellors and the Order of the Coif and a comment editor of the Texas Law Review. He will receive the Lifetime Achievement Award in recognition of his distinguished legal career. He currently serves as senior counsel of Baker Botts in Houston, where he was managing partner from 1984 to 1998. Under his leadership, the firm more than doubled in size. He is former chairman of the Antitrust Law Section of the American Bar Association and is a fellow of the American College of Trial Lawyers. He serves his community as a board member or trustee of many foundations, including the Law School Foundation, Rice University, his alma mater, the Baylor College of Medicine and the Texas Heart Institute, St. Luke's Episcopal Health System, the Center for Houston'sFuture, the Greater Houston Partnership, and the Houston Zoo, Inc.
A practicing attorney for nearly forty years and former vice chairman of The University of Texas Board of Regents, Shannon Ratliff will receive the Outstanding Alumnus Award for his contributions to the legal profession and society. Ratliff is a partner in the Ratliff Law Firm, P.L.L.C. in Austin. He has an active appellate law practice and represents clients before the Texas legislature, most recently on products liability and other tort reform issues.
Ratliff was named a distinguished alumnus of The University of Texas at Austin in 1996 and has been listed in The Best Lawyers in America since1991. He has served as a member and chairman of the Texas Public Safety Commission, co-chair of the Committee to Revise the Local Civil Rules of the Western District of Texas, and a member of the Texas Board of Legal Examiners. Currently, he is a member of the International Association of Defense Counsel and a fellow in the American College of Trial lawyers. Ratliff received a B.A. in 1961 and LL.B. in 1964 at the Law School, where he was editor-in-chief of the Texas Law Review and a member of Phi Delta Phi and Order of the Coif. After law school, he clerked for U.S.Supreme Court Associate Justice Tom C. Clark, a 1922 graduate of UT Law School.
Judge Lindsay, '77, who was sworn in as a U. S. district judge for the Northern District of Texas on September 1, 1998, was selected to receive the Distinguished Alumnus Award for Community Service, which honors a graduate who brings conspicuous credit to the legal profession by exemplary service. The award recognizes Lindsay for his lifetime commitment to excellence in public service. He was the Dallas city attorney from May 1992 to August 1998. Lindsay tried and successfully defended all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court a juvenile curfew ordinance enacted by the City of Dallas. His numerous past and present professional affiliations include the International Municipal Lawyers Association, Southwestern Legal Foundation, Federal Judiciary AdvisoryCommittee for the Northern District of Texas, Dallas Business Journal Advisory Committee, and the Fifth Circuit Bar Association.
Lindsay received a B.A. from St. Mary's University and a J.D. in 1977 from UT Law. Nominated by President Clinton to the federal bench, Lindsay was the first African-American to be appointed as a federal district judge for the Northern District of Texas, which includes one hundred counties. In the past, he has received many awards including the Trailblazers Award (1993), the C.B. Bunkley Award (1996), the Man of the Year Award (1999) by the South Dallas Business and Professional Women'sClub, and the Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., Justice Award (2000) from the Dallas Bar Association.
Joe Long, '58, will be inducted as Honorary Order of the Coif, the oldest legal honor society. He was honored by The University of Texas at Austin as a distinguished alumnus in 2001. He graduated from The University in 1951 with a degree in government, served with the Military Police in Korea, and then graduated from the Law School in 1958. He worked for the State Securities Board and Attorney General's office before going into private practice and investing in banks. For more than 24 years he managed banks until 1998 when he sold First State Bank. Since then, he and his wife, Dr. Teresa Lozano Long, have become leading philanthropists. They have helped rebuild the Palmer Auditorium and provided substantial endowments for the Law School, government department, College of Education, and the Teresa Lozano Long Institute of Latin American Studies.
The Alumni Award recipients are chosen by the Law Alumni Association Executive Committee, based on nominations submitted by the alumni of the Law School. Honorary membership in the Order of the Coif is conferred by the local chapter of the Order.