Accomplished court, legal leaders to be inducted into NCSC’s Burger Society
What does a state supreme court chief justice have in common with a hedge fund executive, a former president of the American Bar Association and a longtime Johnson & Johnson vice president?
These four individuals and three others are the 2021 inductees into the Warren E. Burger Society. Named for the former U.S. Supreme Court chief justice, this recognition honors individuals who have used their resources to help NCSC in exceptional ways. This year’s inductees will be celebrated at an event in Washington, D.C., Thursday evening.
The 2021 inductees include:
- Luther J. Battiste, III, founding shareholder of Johnson, Toal & Battiste in Columbia, S.C. Battiste served on the NCSC Board of Directors and is a council member for the Just Horizons initiative. The former city council member and mayor pro tempore of Columbia, he is the past president of the American Board of Trial Advocates.
- Russell C. Deyo, retired vice president and general counsel at Johnson & Johnson. Deyo, a past NCSC board member, sits on the National Judicial Task Force to Examine State Courts’ Response to Mental Illness and Just Horizons council. He is also a long-time member of NCSC’s General Counsel Committee. Following his retirement from Johnson & Johnson, Deyo served as the under secretary of management at the U.S. Department of Homeland Security and later became the acting deputy secretary.
- Pamela Q. Harris, Maryland State Court Administrator. Harris is a leader within the Conference of State Court Administrators (COSCA) on initiatives including the Joint Committee on Security and Emergency Preparedness, Court Statistics Project, Joint Technology Committee, National Open Court Data Standards, and NCSC’s Institute for Court Management Advisory Committee. She is the CEO of the International Association for Court Administration and a past president of the National Association for Court Management.
- Nebraska Supreme Court Chief Justice Michael G. Heavican. Chief Justice Heavican is a past president of the Conference of Chief Justices (CCJ) and serves as CCJ’s representative to the Council of State Governments and Joint CCJ/COSCA committees on Criminal Justice, Elders and the Courts, and Government Affairs. His leadership has led Nebraska courts to allow cameras in the courtroom, digitize court records for online case management, establish an Office of the Public Guardian and open self-help desks across the state.
- Retired Judge Elizabeth P. “Libby” Hines of the 15th District Court in Ann Arbor, Mich. Judge Hines, a former NCSC board member, was the 2018 recipient of the William H. Rehnquist Award for Judicial Excellence, one of the most prestigious honors awarded to a state court judge. She is widely known for her groundbreaking work in domestic violence and has served on the board of the American Judges Association.
- Simon M. “Sy” Lorne, vice chairman and chief legal officer of Millennium Management, a New York City investment management firm. Lorne, a past NCSC board member, has held senior legal and compliance positions at Citicorp and predecessor firms Salomon Brothers and Travelers Group before joining Millennium. He served as general counsel of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission and taught at University of Pennsylvania Law School, University of Southern California Law School, and New York University’s law and business schools.
- Judy Perry Martinez, of counsel for the New Orleans law firm of Simon, Peragine, Smith & Redfearn. Martinez has been a long-time advocate for the need for legal reforms, particularly to close the nation’s access-to-justice gap – an initiative that is important to NCSC. She helped establish the New Orleans Pro Bono Project and served as a Pro Bono Fellow for Southeast Louisiana Legal Services. A former vice president and chief compliance officer at Northrop Grumman, Martinez served as president of the American Bar Association from 2019-20.
Visit our site to see a full list of Burger Society inductees.
Check out NCSC's new webinars page
One of the silver linings of the coronavirus pandemic is the ease at which organizations like ours can invite subject-matter experts to share information in real time. Since 2020, NCSC has greatly increased the number of webinars it offers, and we now have a new webinars page that makes registration a breeze.
This week, NCSC has four webinars scheduled on topics ranging from the American Rescue Plan Act grant process to IT needs for hybrid hearings.
If your schedule doesn’t allow you to attend live webinars, no problem. The new page also includes links to more than 45 recorded webinars that date back to May 2020.