Chadbourne & Parke Partner George Bundy Smith Receives ABA 'Spirit Of Excellence' Award

NEW YORK, Feb. 12 /PRNewswire/ -- The Hon. George Bundy Smith, a partner of the international law firm of Chadbourne & Parke, was a recipient of the Spirit of Excellence Award from the American Bar Association's Commission on Racial and Ethnic Diversity. He received the award on February 9, 2008 at the Hyatt Regency Century Plaza in Los Angeles.

"I'm deeply honored by this recognition by the ABA," said Judge Smith. After serving for 14 years as an Associate Judge on the Court of Appeals, New York's highest court, Judge Smith joined Chadbourne in December 2006 as a partner in the litigation practice, with an additional focus on appeals and arbitration. "It inspires me to continue to speak out for social justice."

Judge Smith's judicial service began in May 1975, when he was named to the Civil Court of New York City. He was a Justice of the Supreme Court of the State of New York from 1980 to 1986, and an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court, Appellate Division, First Department, from 1987 to 1992. He was appointed to the Court of Appeals by Governor Mario Cuomo, and served until his retirement in September 2006.

First as a student and then a young lawyer, Judge Smith labored to advance the cause of civil rights. In 1961, he joined other students in the Freedom Rides to Montgomery, Alabama, where the National Guard was needed to protect the students from hostile mobs. After graduating from Yale Law School, Judge Smith served as an attorney for the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund. He later became a judicial law secretary in the New York state courts, and from 1974 to 1975 was the administrator of New York City's Model Cities Program.

The Spirit of Excellence Award celebrates the efforts and accomplishments of lawyers and judges who work to promote a more racially and ethnically diverse legal profession. The ABA's Commission on Racial and Ethnic Diversity provides a voice to identify and tackle issues of discrimination, racism and bigotry, and to inspire the ABA and the profession to value differences, to be sensitive to prejudice and to reflect the society they serve.

About Chadbourne & Parke LLP

Chadbourne & Parke LLP, an international law firm headquartered in New York City, provides a full range of legal services, including mergers and acquisitions, securities, project finance, private funds, corporate finance, energy, communications and technology, commercial and products liability litigation, securities litigation and regulatory enforcement, special investigations and litigation, intellectual property, antitrust, domestic and international tax, insurance and reinsurance, environmental, real estate, bankruptcy and financial restructuring, employment law and ERISA, trusts and estates and government contract matters. Major geographical areas of concentration include Central and Eastern Europe, Russia and the CIS, the Middle East and Latin America. The Firm has offices in New York, Washington, DC, Los Angeles, Houston, London (a multinational partnership), Moscow, St. Petersburg, Warsaw (a Polish partnership), Kyiv, Almaty, Dubai and Beijing. For additional information, visit www.chadbourne.com.