The School of Law will recog- nize four outstanding alumni and two outstanding young alumni at its 28th annual Distinguished Law Alumni Awards Dinner Friday, Oct. 13, at the Ritz-Carlton Hotel St. Louis.
Those receiving 2000 Distinguished Law Alumni Awards are: Alan J. Dixon (L.L.B. '49), Robert O. Hetlage (A.B. '52, J.D. '54), Margaret Howard (J.D. '75, M.S.W. '75) and Reuben M. Morriss III (J.D. '64). This year's Distinguished Young Law Alumni Awards will be presented to Catherine D. Perry (J.D. '80) and Rodney W. Sippel (J.D. '81).
The Distinguished Law Alumni Awards honor those who have obtained distinction in their professional or academic careers. Honorees share the characteristics of leadership, progressive thinking, high standards, uncompromising integrity, commitment, courage and confidence. The Distinguished Young Law Alumni Awards honor graduates from the law school within the past 25 years. The recipients exemplify achievement and commitment to the ideals embodied in a Washington University law school education.
Dixon, a U.S. senator from 1981 to 1993, has been a partner with the St. Louis-based firm Bryan Cave since 1993. While in the Senate, he twice was elected unanimously as chief deputy whip, the No. 3 leadership post. As a senior member of the Senate Banking Committee, he introduced legislation to prosecute those guilty of savings-and-loan fraud. Dixon also chaired the Senate Armed Forces Committee's subcommittee on readiness and the Defense Base Closure and Realignment Commission. He first was elected to public office as a police magistrate in Belleville, Ill., while a law student. He served the state of Illinois as a representative, senator, state treasurer and secretary of state.
Hetlage, now of counsel for the St. Louis firm Blackwell Sanders Peper Martin, is a former partner and chair of St. Louis' Peper Martin, Jensen, Maichel and Hetlage. He is listed in Best Lawyers in America, Who's Who in the World and the Guide to the World's Leading Real Estate Lawyers. A member of the American Bar Foundation Board of Trustees executive committee, he is past president of the Missouri Bar, the Bar Association of Metropolitan St. Louis and the American College of Real Estate Lawyers. His wife, Anne W. Hetlage, served as associate dean of University College, and two of their three children are University alumni.
Howard, professor at the Vanderbilt University School of Law, is an innovative teacher and a well-known scholar in bankruptcy and commercial law. She is a frequent speaker at the National Conference of Bankruptcy Judges. Author of several articles tracing developments in bankruptcy law, she recently published "Bankruptcy: Cases and Materials." Howard serves on the editorial board of Business Law Today and the editorial advisory board of the Journal of Bankruptcy Law and Practice. She has served on the boards of the American Bankruptcy Law Journal, Business Lawyer and the American Bankruptcy Board of Certification. A recipient of the Paul J. Hartman Teaching Award, she has taught at numerous law schools including as a visiting professor at Washington University.
Morriss retired in 1995 as vice chair and director of Boatmen's Trust Co., which, at the time, was the nation's 13th-largest trust operation. He joined Boatmen's in 1965 after working in the family company, Wood Treating Chemical (later sold to Monsanto Co.). Morriss has served on the boards of numerous institutions, including Family and Children's Service, William Woods University, Mary Institute, the Opera Theatre of Saint Louis, the Missouri Historical Society, the Arts and Education Council of Greater St. Louis, Grace Hill Community Services, St. Luke's Hospital and Bellefontaine Cemetery. He also is a member of the vestry of St. Michael and St. George Episcopal Church and treasurer of the Episcopal Diocese of Missouri. He is on the law school's National Council, Campaign Cabinet and Law Alumni Association Board; a former member of the University's Alumni Board of Governors; and a Scholars-in-Law sponsor.
Perry has served as a judge for the U.S. District Court, Eastern District of Missouri, since 1994. She previously was a magistrate judge on the same court. She serves on the Committee on Automation and Technology and chairs the subcommittee on IT Security and Education. Her article, titled "What Works: Evidence From a Trial Judge's Perspective," recently appeared in the ABA's Litigation Magazine. Perry serves the law school as an adjunct professor, moot court judge and frequent speaker.
Sippel also is a U.S. District Court judge for the Eastern District. After his first year of law school, he joined U.S. Sen. Thomas Eagleton's staff in St. Louis and worked as a field director in the senator's 1980 re-election campaign. Before becoming a judge in 1998, he worked at the St. Louis firm now known as Husch and Eppenberger and served as administrative assistant to U.S. Rep. Richard A. Gephardt.