IndyBar: Zore, Russell Recipients of Professionalism Awards

Zore

The IndyBar Professionalism Committee has named Hon. Gerald Zore of Marion Superior Court the 2013 recipient of the Silver Gavel Award, while C. Joseph Russell has been posthumously awarded the bar’s Professionalism Award for 2013.

Both will be honored at the upcoming IndyBar Professionalism Luncheon to be held on Wednesday, September 25 from noon to 1 p.m. at the Hyatt Indianapolis. The luncheon will also feature special guest speaker Hon. Loretta Rush of the Indiana Supreme Court.

The Hon. Gerald Zore is currently the Presiding Judge of the Marion Superior Court, Probate Division, and has served as Superior Court Judge since 1974. His nomination notes, “As a judge, he is thoughtful, rules timely on matters and does not shirk his duty or recuse himself just because the matter before him is controversial or difficult.”

Russell

A longtime IndyBar member and volunteer, Judge Zore is also a member of the Indiana Supreme Court’s Commission on Race and Gender Fairness, the Board of Directors of Cathedral High School, the Board of Directors of the Indiana University Robert H. McKinney School of Law Alumni Association, and the Noble of Indiana Advisory Board. Born in Indianapolis, Judge Zore is a graduate of Cathedral High School, Marian University and the IU Robert H. McKinney School of Law. A member of St. Pius X Catholic Church, Judge Zore has been married to his wife, Debra, for 32 years and they have two children: Meaghan, an attorney in San Francisco, and Matthew, a doctor in Indianapolis.

C. Joseph Russell was selected to receive the Professionalism Award posthumously after his sudden passing in July 2013. Joe was lauded as a pillar of professionalism in the legal community, with his nomination noting, “His passing was a shock, but I think everyone who knows him would agree he epitomized what this award is about. Joe was a class act and could always maintain civility in even the most contentious of cases.”

Russell was a Past President of the Indianapolis Bar Association, having served in 1999. He held numerous other positions within the bar, including roles as the IndyBar’s representative to the ABA House of Delegates from 2001 to 2007, the co-chair of the Professionalism Committee, on the executive committees of the Litigation, Environmental Law and Criminal Justice Sections, and the chair of the Bench Bar Conference. He also held positions within the Seventh Circuit Bar Association, the Hendricks County Bar Association, the Hamilton County Bar Association, the Indiana State Bar Association, Federal Community Defenders Inc., the Hamilton County Vesta Foundation for Children and Orchard Park Presbyterian Church.

Russell was a graduate of Western Kentucky University and received his J.D. from the Robert H. McKinney School of Law. He is survived by his wife Betsy, an attorney at Krieg DeVault LLP, and son Marc.•