ABOTA Presents Lifetime Achievement Award to San Francisco Lawyer Ronald H. Rouda

1998 National President honored at National Board Meeting with organization's highest honor

DALLAS, Jan. 20, 2011 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The American Board of Trial Advocates presented its highest honor to former ABOTA National President Ronald H. Rouda, the ABOTA Lifetime Achievement Award. Rouda was honored at the organization's National Board of Directors meeting in New Orleans, Jan. 15.

Rouda is the senior partner of the San Francisco law firm of Rouda, Feder, Tietjen & McGuinn. His ABOTA career began in 1976 when he was admitted into the invitation-only association. He is a past president of the San Francisco Chapter and in 1995 was named California Trial Lawyer of the Year by the California chapters of ABOTA. He served as National President of ABOTA in 1998. He served as President of the California Trial Lawyers Association in 1992.

He was the guiding spirit behind the ABOTA Foundation's "Justice by the People" program. The Justice by the People program was launched in 1998 to allow students hands-on experience with the trial process. It contained multiple lesson plans and features an interactive game called Make Your Case. The easy-to-use, turnkey lesson plans and student reproducibles were designed to help teach students about the Sixth and Seventh Amendments to the U.S. Constitution and the critical importance of the right to trial by jury. Free copies of Justice by the People were mailed to approximately 1,500 teachers each year.

Today, through a partnership with Scholastic Inc., the largest educational publisher in the world, Justice by the People is a free online resource on the Scholastic web site at www.scholastic.com/americanjustice. The 10 lesson plans have been aligned with national teaching standards for social studies, which helps teachers meet No Child Left Behind and state curriculum goals. Justice by the People can be integrated easily into the existing curriculum and help teachers meet the federal mandate to teach about the Constitution on Constitution Day.

In 2007, Justice by the People received the Distinguished Achievement Award by the Association of Educational Publishers. The award recognized the best educational materials for Social Studies Instruction for grades 6-8.

Rouda joins only five others who have received the Lifetime Achievement Award, ABOTA's highest form of recognition honoring an individual whose leadership efforts have advanced the preservation of the right to trial by jury guaranteed by the Seventh Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. As the sixth recipient of the award, he joins Mark P. Robinson (2001), the Hon. William J. Rea (2002), Kermit J. Morgan (2004), Robert D. Barbagelata (2004) and H. Gilbert Jones (2009) as the other award recipients.

"We are grateful for Ron's vision and imagination in creating the Justice by the People program," said Harry T. Widmann, 2011 National President. "But he didn't just come up with an idea and then hand it off to someone else. He helped shepherd the idea into reality. He continues to be active within ABOTA and continues to promote the youth education initiative. He set a standard that will endure for future generations."

Rouda said that he is proud that the Justice by the People program has grown and continues to reach teachers and students. He thanked the funding partners, including the Fellows of ABOTA Foundation and multiple state bar foundations.

ABOUT ABOTA:

The American Board of Trial Advocates, founded in 1958, is an organization dedicated to defending the American civil justice system. With a membership of 6,400 experienced attorneys representing both plaintiffs and defendants in civil cases, ABOTA is uniquely qualified to speak for the value of the constitutionally mandated jury system as the protector of the rights of persons and property. ABOTA publishes Voir Dire magazine, which features in-depth articles on current and historical issues related to constitutional rights, in particular the Seventh Amendment right to trial by jury. ABOTA and the ABOTA Foundation's national headquarters are in Dallas.

SOURCE American Board of Trial Advocates