Lifetime Achivement Award

The Business Law Section of the State Bar of California has recognized the following individuals for lifetime achievement in the field of business law and is proud to have awarded them The Business Law Section Lifetime Achievement Award.

The award is given each year to a member of the State Bar who over an extended period has made significant contributions to the Section or to business law generally in the State of California and who has achieved high status in the legal community.

2011: Anthony R. Pierno

The Lifetime Achievement Award will be presented to Anthony R. Pierno during the Annual Meeting at the State Bar Breakfast, Friday, September 16 at 8:30 a.m. Mr. Pierno is the Senior Vice Present and General Counsel of MAXXAM Inc. and each of its subsidiary corporations. A long-time practitioner in Southern California in the area of securities, commodities and franchise law along with the broader commercial and corporate practice areas, he was later appointed by Governor Ronald Regan as Commissioner of Corporations for the State of California. He also served as interim Insurance Commissioner at Governor Regan's request. Mr. Pierno was instrumental in preparing and having enacted legislation modernizing seven other of the laws under the jurisdiction of the Department. He also sponsored other major new laws for California including one which (pre-ERISA) created a new Retirement Systems Disclosure Law eliminating which established a privately-funded guarantee program to protect depositors in industrial loan companies.

2010: George Coombe

The State Bar Business Law Section recognized George Coombe as its 2010 Lifetime Achievement Award winner at its annual breakfast to be held in conjunction with the State Bar Annual Meeting. George Coombe is the retired General Counsel of Bank of America. George has had an eventful and illustrious career. It has ranged from combat in the Pacific during World War II, through serving as Assistant General Counsel and Corporate Secretary of General Motors from 1968 to 1975 and capping his career as General Counsel of Bank of America from 1975 - 1990. As General Counsel of the Bank George greatly expanded the size of the Bank's legal department and strongly supported the hiring of women in the Bank's legal department. George was instrumental in the development of modern approaches to corporate governance, both in practice and in bar-related activties, such as American Law Institute projects. George served as chair of the American Bar Association's Section of Business Law. At the Bank he strongly encouraged the members of the legal department to participate in bar association activities. George has been eager to share his learning with others and has taught at leading law schools, including Stanford and Hastings. He has been a community leader in each of the communities where he has lived. George richly deserves this award for his enriching of our professional lives.

2009: Denis T. Rice

The Section of Business Law awarded its 2009 Lifetime Achievement Award to Denny Rice. The award is given each year to a lawyer who has made significant contributions to the Section or business law generally, or both, over an extended period and who is held in high regard in the profession. Denny unreservedly meets and exceeds each of these criteria.

Denny is the complete package. He has broad experience and has contributed to a wide range of corporate and securities matters. Denny has been a leader in developing cyberspace law. He has spoken and written on many different subjects. He is a community leader and an active athlete.

Denny has given selflessly to the bar and to his community. He has trained lawyers in his firm and in the profession through his writing and speaking. Through his bar association activities, he has improved the law. His community activities have made the lives of many better. Based on his history of service and his many accomplishments, Denny richly deserves the Section's Lifetime Achievement Award.

2008: Melvin A. Eisenberg

Mr. Eisenberg is a graduate of Harvard Law School, and joined the faculty of Boalt Hall School of Law at the University of California at Berkeley in 1966, where he has superbly taught several generations of business lawyers. Professor Eisenberg is widely recognized as one of the leading scholars of corporate and contract law. His numerous articles and law reform efforts have helped shape today's U.S. corporate law. He won the UC Berkeley Distinguished Teaching Award in 1990, the Rutter Award for Teaching Distinction in 2002 and the Faculty Lifetime Achievement Award in 2008.

The author of leading casebooks The Nature of the Common Law and The Structure of the Corporation, Professor Eisenberg was chief reporter for the American Law Institute's Principles of Corporate Governance. He is an adviser to the Restatement (Third) of Agency and Restatement (Third) of Restitution, and a consultant to the ABA Committee on Corporate Laws.

2007: Steven O. Weise

Steven O. Weise was selected as the recipient of the 2007 Business Law Section Lifetime Achievement Award, given at the BLS breakfast on September 28 at the State Bar of California Annual Meeting in Anaheim.

Steve is a nationally recognized expert in all areas of commercial law. He is a member of the Permanent Editorial Board for the Uniform Commercial Code (UCC) and was the American Bar Association's Advisor to the Uniform Commercial Code Article 9 Drafting Committee. He is the ABA's representative to the United Nations Commission on International Trade Law (UNCITRAL) Working Group on Secured Transactions. In addition to his expertise under the UCC, he is an expert in contract law in general (including electronic contracting) and is a leading national guru in opinion letters.

Steve is the author of extensive annual updates on all areas of commercial law published by the American Bar Association and the State Bar of California. He is also a past chair of the ABA Section of Business Law and of its Committee on Personal Property Secured Financing and its Committee on Legal Opinions. At the state level, he is a former chair of the Executive Committee of the Business Law Section of the State Bar of California and of its Committee on the Uniform Commercial Code.

He received his B.A. from Yale University in 1971, and his J.D. from the University of California, Berkeley (Boalt Hall) in 1974.

For a fuller account of Steve's distinguished career, see "Steven O. Weise Receives Business Law Section's Lifetime Achievement Award," an article written by Ann Yvonne Walker for the Business Law News.

2006: Roland E. Brandel

The Business Law Section awarded its Lifetime Achievement Award for 2006 to Roland E. Brandel at the Annual Meeting of the State Bar of California in Monterey.

Roland Eric Brandel is active primarily in the field of consumer financial services and financial institution regulation. In addition to regularly advising clients in this field, he has been directly involved in many federal legislative and regulatory efforts affecting the field in the past 30 years. He has had primary responsibility for joint efforts in the financial services industry in development of products such as bankcards, electronic fund transfer systems, and other innovative lending and value transfer services.

For a fuller account of Roland's career and accomplishments, Roland E. Brandel Receives Business Law Section's Lifetime Achievement Award by Ann Yvonne Walker.

2005: Harry Sigman

The Business Law Section awarded its Lifetime Achievement Award for 2005 to Harry C. Sigman at the Annual Meeting of the State Bar of California in San Diego.

Harry Sigman is a sole practitioner. He is a law professor. He is a consultant to governments and to the private sector, he drafts laws, he lectures frequently, he writes prolifically, and his writings are published and read worldwide. Harry is on the road more than most bus drivers. He travels constantly — not in California alone nor just in the U.S., but throughout the world as a latter-day intellectual Johnny Appleseed planting seeds of U.S. principles and processes used in commercial financing transactions. He collects globally, like a jurisprudential Darwin, samples of commercial law principles and processes used in other countries; the better to compare and to understand our domestic species of financing transactions, always with the possibility of introducing new ideas into our domestic stock. A most unusual career!

For a fuller account of Mr. Sigman career and accomplishments, see Harry Sigman Receives Business Law Section's Lifetime Achivement Award by Roland E. Brandel.

2004: John B. Power

The Business Law Section awarded its Lifetime Achievement Award for 2004 to John B. Power at the Annual Meeting of the State Bar of California in Monterey.

For more than four decades John has been a living example of a business lawyer practicing at the highest level. He has made substantial contributions to the bar and to community organizations, and has nurtured and helped to increasing success several of California's important institutions. John's continues to be an inspiration to those who work with him and serves as a model of what a lawyer should be in his or her daily relationship with clients, opposing parties and professional colleagues. His contributions to legal literature and the education of hundreds of lawyers, and his dedication to institutions, such as the ABA and State Bar Business Law Sections, that provide the infrastructure for business law development and education of lawyers, have been immense.

For a fuller account of Mr. Power's career and accomplishments, see John B. Power Receives Business Law Section's Lifetime Achivement Award by Roland E. Brandel.

2003: William M. Burke

In the past quarter-century, few individuals have had as much influence on the development of legal principles that govern the debt financing of business as has William M. Burke. For more than three decades, he practiced law at a high level in this field. He nurtured, led, and even, at times, created the organizational structures that supported law reform and the education of practicing lawyers. He wrote prolifically, handled seminal cases on appeal, and was instrumental in several legislative law reform efforts.

See the September 5, 2003 Special Edition of the Business Law News to see a full article by Roland E. Brandel about Mr. Burke's career and accomplishments.

2002: Marshall L. Small

Marshall Small is a preeminent leader in the corporate and securities law field, as a practicing lawyer, a law school instructor, a participant in several projects with the Business Law Section, an active member of the American Bar Association Section of Business Law, a law firm manager, a reporter of the American Law Institute Corporate Governance Project, a lecturer in prestigious continuing legal education venues, and as an author of many authoritative articles in the field.

For a fuller account of Mr. Small's accomplishments, see 2002 Achievement Award Winner Marshall L. Small.