ABA Tort Trial and Insurance Practice Section honors several during conference

The American Bar Association Tort Trial and Insurance Practice Section will present several awards during the TIPS & YLD Section Conference, May 3-6, in New York City.

—ABA Excellence in the Advancement of Animal Law Award

Jane McBride, a member of the Illinois State Water Survey Advisory Board and Illinois state representative for Project Coyote, will receive the American Bar Association Tort Trial and Insurance Practice Section’s Animal Law Committee Excellence in the Advancement of Animal Law Award.  McBride is a former TIPS Animal Law Committee chair and founder and president of Illinois Humane.

The award recognizes exceptional work by an Animal Law Committee member who, through commitment and leadership, has advanced the humane treatment of animals through the law.

During McBride’s tenure as committee chair, she led a collaboration with the National Judicial College to develop a series of webinars on animal law. Judges now have more extensive awareness and familiarity with animal law, animal interests and well-being. This initiative formed a continuing legal education program that has become essential training for judges, advanced the practice of animal law before the judiciary and promoted the interests of animals. McBride also worked to deepen and develop the committee’s future leaders by investing in mentorship and professional development of young lawyers.

McBride’s work in the Illinois State Bar Association and her leadership of its animal law-related efforts have brought together many diverse stakeholders to champion legislation benefiting animals. McBride also served as senior assistant attorney general and assistant bureau chief of the Environmental Bureau in the Illinois Attorney General’s Office.

She received her law degree from Chicago-Kent College of Law and her bachelor’s degree in agricultural journalism and fisheries and wildlife biology from Iowa State University.

“Jane McBride is a visionary leader, advancing and professionalizing animal law and the TIPS Animal Law Committee for the benefit of Animal Law Committee members and animals alike,” said Gary L. Gassman, chair of the ABA Tort Trial and Insurance Practice Section. “TIPS is proud to honor our friend and colleague with the Excellence in the Advancement of Animal Law Award.”

—ABA James K. Carroll Leadership Award

Sam H. Poteet Jr. will be honored with the James K. Carroll Leadership Award which recognizes an attorney or judge who has demonstrated leadership qualities in service to the section.

Poteet is a principal with Manier & Herod, practicing in the areas of surety law, financial institution bonds, fidelity law, D&O and E&O insurance, taxation, estate and business law. He previously served as chair of the TIPS Section and as a council member, officer and chair of its Fidelity & Surety Law Committee. He is a frequent speaker at the ABA, the Fidelity Law Association and the Southern Surety & Fidelity Claims Association meetings. Poteet has handled surety claims and workouts/bankruptcies for numerous sureties and handles fidelity and financial institution bond claims. In addition, he has represented clients in numerous purchase and sale transactions of business and handles estate tax planning for large estates, most of which have involved closely held businesses.

Poteet received his B.S. from Tennessee Technological University in 1979 and his law degree from the University of Tennessee College of Law in 1982.  He has been a certified public accountant since 1986 and is a Nashville Bar Foundation Fellow.

“Sam Poteet has been an indispensable and dedicated TIPS member and friend, showing significant and steadfast leadership through the years, including his roles as section chair, section finance officer and as chair of the section’s Fidelity and Surety Law Committee,” said Gassman. “We are proud to recognize and honor our friend and colleague with the James Carroll Leadership Award for his considerable contributions to TIPS.”

—ABA Liberty Achievement Award

Ellie Jurado-Nieves, vice president and assistant general counsel for regulatory and legislative affairs at the Guardian Life Insurance Company, will be honored with the Liberty Achievement Award. 

Sponsored by Thomson Reuters, the award celebrates lawyers and judges who have spent their careers actively promoting diversity and inclusion in the legal profession.

Jurado-Nieves has played a key role in diversity and inclusion efforts at Guardian, serving as a founding member of the company’s inaugural diversity council that established a companywide diversity strategy focused on embedding diversity practices into human capital management, culture and programs. She also established and served as chair of the company’s first employee resource group, the Women’s Leadership Network, to drive the development of programs to build the next generation of leaders at Guardian. The WLN has grown to over 400 members, including a chapter in India. She is the immediate past Diversity Strategy Partner for Guardian’s Law Department where she launched various programs to increase diversity, including programming with Guardian’s retained law firms to partner with and encourage the development of lawyers from diverse backgrounds assigned to Guardian matters.

As former president of the New York Puerto Rican Bar Association, Jurado-Nieves served on the Hispanic National Bar Association’s Latina Commission and has facilitated workshops on executive presence during the HNBA’s Latina Leadership Academy for the past four years. She is on the faculty of the American Management Association where she teaches several women’s leadership development and diversity and inclusion courses. She also hosts her own podcast, “Leadership Strategies for Women,” which was ranked by Feedspot as one of the best 25 women’s leadership podcasts in 2022.

“Thomson Reuters is honored to work with the Tort Trial and Insurance Practice Section and proud to support this important award,” said Laura Clayton McDonnell, president of the Corporates business segment at Thomson Reuters. “It’s a privilege to recognize Ellie Jurado-Nieves for her career-long dedication to championing diversity efforts in the legal profession and beyond.”

The ABA Tort Trial and Insurance Practice Section unites plaintiff, defense, insurance and corporate counsel to advance the civil justice system. TIPS is a national source of expertise in tort, trial and insurance practice and brings lawyers together to share information and speak out on issues of importance. The section has more than 10,000 members and more than 30 general committees that focus on substantive and procedural matters in areas across the broad spectrum of civil law and practice. For additional information about the Tort Trial and Insurance Practice Section visit the TIPS website, www.americanbar.org/tips.