Bar Crawl – 5/8/13

Bar Crawl highlights bar association news around the state. Indiana Lawyer strives to include bar association news and trends in its regular stories, and we would like to include more news from specialty and county bars. If you’d like to submit an update about your bar association or a photo from an event your bar association has hosted, or if you have questions about having your bar association news included in the newspaper, please send it to Marilyn Odendahl at [email protected], along with contact information for any follow-up questions at least two weeks prior to the issue date.

Bar Foundation WTP program achieves historical first

For the first time in Indiana history, the state had two teams competing in the top 10 of the We The People national finals.

The three-day event, held in Washington, D.C., started with high school teams representing 45 states. By the final day of the competition on April 29, only 10 teams were still competing, including two from Indiana.

After the championship round, Cathedral High School in Indianapolis placed fifth in the nation and Plainfield High School placed 10th.

In the final round, Hoosier students competed against teams from across the country including Connecticut, Colorado, Oregon, Alabama and California. No other state had two teams in the championship round.

“Having two teams in the top 10 is a testament to the depth of talent in our state and the quality of teachers in the program,” Charles Dunlap, executive director of the Indiana Bar Foundation, stated in a press release.

Pro bono service recognized during Evansville Bar lunch

Evansville attorneys were honored for their pro bono activities and service to the legal community during the annual awards luncheon sponsored by the Evansville Bar Association, the Volunteer Lawyer Program of Southwest Indiana and the Legal Secretaries of Southwest Indiana.

The celebratory lunch was held April 17 at the Aztar Conference Center in downtown Evansville. About 120 individuals attended.

Members of the EBA Access to Justice Committee received the Doran Perdue Service Award for their work in assessing and auditing current services offered by various organizations that serve low-income residents of southwestern Indiana. Committee members are attorneys Charles Hewins, Jean Blanton, Joe Langerak, Beverly Corn, Karen Heard, Garvin Senn, Krista Hamby Weiberg, Tracy Thread, Scott Wylie, Ted Barron and Vanderburgh Superior Magistrate Judge Jill Marcrum, along with Emily Baxter of the United Way of Southwestern Indiana.Attorney Phil Siegel was awarded the Susan K. Helfrich Award for Excellence in Pro Bono Service. He was honored for regularly volunteering to take difficult pro bono cases.

Chriss Heim of Jones Wallace was recognized with the Florence Britzius Award. This award honors the legal secretary who has shown outstanding commitment to the profession and legal community.

Kathy Feldmeier of Ziemer Stayman Weitzel and Shoulders LLP was honored with the EBA Outstanding Paralegal Award. Established in 2009, this award recognizes those members of the paralegal section who have provided outstanding service to the Evansville legal community.•