SAN FRANCISCO – A distinguished lawyer from Seattle, federal court staff from Los Angeles and the Stanford Law School will be recognized with awards during the 2009 Ninth Circuit Judicial Conference at the Hyatt Regency Monterey in Monterey, Calif.

Harry H. Schneider, Jr., Esq., a widely respected trial lawyer and partner in the Seattle law firm of Perkins Coie, will receive the 2009 American Inns of Court Professionalism Award for the Ninth Circuit. The award recognizes a senior practicing lawyer or judge whose life and practice display sterling character and unquestioned integrity, coupled with ongoing dedication to the highest standards of the legal profession.

Dawn M. Osborne-Adams, Esq., of the United States District Court for the Central District of California in Los Angeles, will receive the Robert F. Peckham Award for Excellence in Alternative Dispute Resolution. The award recognizes a judiciary employee who has significantly advanced the delivery of effective court-based ADR programs.

The Stanford Law School Gould Center for Conflict Resolution Programs will receive the Ninth Circuit ADR Education Award recognizing institutions which have advanced ADR scholarship and research. Janet Martinez, director of the center, will receive the award.

The awards will be presented on July 22 during a morning program for the bench and bar. The American Inns of Court Professionalism Award will be presented by the Hon. Mary M. Schroeder, former chief judge of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit and a past AIC national trustee. The ADR awards will be presented by Senior Circuit Judge Dorothy W. Nelson, who chairs the Ninth Circuit ADR Committee.

Also to be announced at the conference is the selection of Thomas J. McDermott, Jr., Esq., a partner in McDermott & DeLateur, LLP, in Indian Wells, Calif., to receive the John P. Frank Award, which recognizes an outstanding lawyer practicing in the federal courts of the western United States. Mr. McDermott’s professional career spans 50 years and includes substantial service to the federal courts of the Ninth Circuit.

Mr. Schneider, who has been with Perkins Coie for 30 years, is a veteran litigator whose practice includes intellectual property, securities, professional liability defense, and trust and estate actions. For the last seven years, Mr. Schneider has served as defense counsel for Salim Hamdan, the former driver of Osama bin Laden who was recently released from the U.S. military base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. A military commission found Hamdan guilty of material support of terror but acquitted him of more serious charges, sentencing him to only five additional months of confinement as opposed to the life sentence sought by the government.

In addition to his work in the courtroom, Mr. Schneider has served on the American Bar Association’s Committees on Professional Discipline and Professional Liability and as special counsel to the Washington State Bar Association’s Disciplinary Committee. He received his bachelor’s degree from the University of California at Berkeley in 1976 and his J.D. from the University of Chicago Law School in 1979.

The American Inns of Court, a national organization dedicated to excellence, civility, professionalism, and ethics in the practice of law, has 340 inns and more than 100,000 current and alumni members throughout the nation.

As manager of ADR programs for the Central District, Ms. Osborne-Adams provides ADR information and guidance to parties, counsel, judges, court staff, attorney settlement officers, academic institutions, other courts and the public. Her contributions include standardizing the system used to assign settlement attorneys to cases, implementing a reimbursement policy for their out-of-pocket expenses, developing a statistical database for ADR cases, coordinating ADR programs with other courts, and promoting better understanding of ADR in the legal community and general public. She has managed the Central District program since 2006.

Stanford Law School’s Gould Negotiation and Mediation Program, now in its 13th year, integrates ADR principles into the legal education curriculum. The program consists of eight different courses, plus opportunities for clinical practice and research. Over 80 percent of Stanford law students take at least one course in the Gould program.

The Peckham and ADR Education awards were established in 2001 and 2005, respectively, by the Judicial Council of the Ninth Circuit. The Peckham Award is named for the late Judge Peckham, a former chief district judge of the Northern District of California, who helped pioneer use of legal means other than court trials to resolve disputes.

The Ninth Circuit Judicial Conference meets pursuant to Section 333 of Title 28 of the United States Code for “the purpose of considering the business of the courts and advising means of improving the administration of justice within such circuit.” The Ninth Circuit consists of the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, and the district and bankruptcy courts and related court units for the district and bankruptcy courts in nine western states and two Pacific Island jurisdictions.

For more information about the conference see: http://www.ce9.uscourts.gov/jc2009/schedule.html