Each year, this award honors up to five outstanding women lawyers who have achieved professional excellence within their area of specialty and have actively paved the way to success for other women lawyers. These women demonstrate excellence in a variety of professional settings and personify excellence on either the national, regional, or local level.

This Award was created by the Dispute Resolution Section and approved by the American Bar Association Board of Governors to recognize outstanding scholarly work in the dispute resolution field.

This award from the American Sociological Association honors the intellectual tradition of Oliver Cox, Charles S. Johnson, and E. Franklin Frazier, who placed their scholarship in service to social justice with an eye toward advancing the status of disadvantaged populations. Their scholarship was not limited to just the gathering of more data, but it was about attempting to better conditions globally.

The Herbert Jacob Book Prize annual competition is open to books from all fields of, and approaches to, law and society scholarship published in the previous year (excluding works of legal history, which are considered for the Hurst Prize).

The James Willard Hurst Prize is awarded annually for the best work in sociolegal history (broadly defined) published in the previous year.

Every year, the LSA recognizes great achievements in the field of Law and Society. The prizes and awards listed on the page linked above include those for books (including the James Willard Hurst Book Prize), articles, dissertations, student writing prizes, as well as, mentorship, service, and legacy awards.

The Legal Writing Institute honors members of the legal writing community with awards in a variety of fields, such as Legal Communication, curriculum design, and the well-known Golden Pen Award. Two new awards for Emerging Scholars and Influential Teaching were established in 2019.

The Lillian Smith Book Awards are most interested in works that deal with race, social justice, civil and human rights, the education and socialization of young people, breaking silence among repressed groups and matters that are notably significant or of special interest affecting the changing South.

These awards are for volunteers who did outstanding work to support the Partners in Giving Campaign.
• Doug Palm Community Service Award: Volunteer demonstrating creativity, resourcefulness, enthusiasm, integrity and outstanding achievement.
• Partners in Giving Excellence Award: A dedicated reliable, grassroots involved person who did an outstanding job in making the campaign a success.
• Robert A. Alesch Award: Volunteer who has served in multiple Partners in Giving leadership roles over an extended period.
• Partners in Giving Innovation Events Award: Individual or individuals within an agency, school or unit who initiated or conducted a special event or events which measurably improved the agency’s, school’s or unit’s campaign over prior years.

The Diversity & Inclusion Award celebrates an individual who contributes to and enhances diversity and inclusion within the Wisconsin legal profession.

This award recognizes an individual or organization that has: Demonstrated dedication to the development and delivery of legal services to the poor; Contributed significantly toward developing innovative ways to deliver volunteer legal services; Participated in an activity that resulted in satisfying previously unmet legal needs or extending legal services to an underserved segment of the population; Handled pro bono cases that favorably affected the provision of services to the poor; Worked on legislation that contributed substantially to legal services to the poor; Made an outstanding effort to provide legal services to an underserved segment of the population; or Any combination of these contributions.

The State Bar offers several awards for public interest law recognizing attorneys, legal workers and law students.

The award recognizes a lawyer who has made significant contributions to the legal community, has shown respect for the legal system, and has demonstrated a love for the law and what it seeks to accomplish. Nominees must be 60 years or older, have helped to improve the legal system, and have shown leadership in advancing the quality of justice for all.

The Outstanding Mentor Award recognizes a mentor with six or more years of practice experience who is a State Bar member in good standing.
The Outstanding Young Lawyer Award honors a young lawyer who has made an impact in their practice area, in service to the State Bar of Wisconsin, and in service to the community.

With support from the UW Law School Institute for Legal Studies, the American Society for Legal History sponsors this two-week program. Each Hurst Institute is organized and chaired by a well-known legal historian and includes visiting senior scholars who lead specialized sessions. An ASLH committee reviews applications and selects 12 early career scholars from around the world as Institute Fellows. The Fellows participate in seminars, meet other legal historians, and present their own work.

The Academic Staff Excellence awards honor nine academic staff members annually in the following categories:
• Chancellor’s Hilldale Award for Excellence in Teaching
• Chancellor’s Awards for Excellence in Research (two awards)
• Chancellor’s Award for Excellence in Service to the University
• Chancellor’s Awards for Excellence in Leadership (two awards)
• Robert and Carroll Heideman Award for Excellence in Public Service and Outreach
• Martha Casey Award for Dedicated Service to the University
• Ann Wallace Career Achievement Award

The Vilas Distinguished Achievement Professorships recognize professors whose distinguished scholarship has advanced the confines of knowledge, and whose excellence has also included teaching or service. Faculty members receiving this award carry the title of Vilas Distinguished Achievement Professor for the duration of their careers at UW-Madison.

These awards demonstrate the Regents’ strong appreciation for the dedicated work, vital services, and outstanding contributions of the UW System’s noninstructional academic staff. Across UW System, there will be two individual recipients, and a third award to honor an outstanding program. Each award will be for $7,500.
Nominees for the individual award should be non-instructional academic staff, and nominations for the program award should be ones that are staffed primarily by non-instructional academic staff. The Regent awards committee will screen nominees based on four criteria: excellence of performance, personal interaction, initiative and creativity, and outstanding achievement.

This award recognizes a lawyer, law firm, or groups of State Bar of Wisconsin members for their work on a recent or ongoing law-related education or public service project that promotes public understanding of the law, improves the administration of justice, or provides other law-related public service that impacts Wisconsin residents and/or State Bar members.

You must be a State Bar member to view the awards page. To qualify for the competition the primary author must be a State Bar member in good standing and the brief must have been submitted to an appellate court, but it doesn't need to have been the winning brief. Briefs are judged on clarity of writing, depth of analysis, and persuasiveness – not on the apparent merits of any issue.