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Newman Honored with Leech Award for Public Service
Leech Award Given by TBA’s Young Lawyers Division Fellows
NASHVILLE, June 7, 2018 – Memphis attorney Charles F. Newman will be honored with this year’s prestigious William M. Leech Jr. Public Service Award, to be presented by the TBA’s Young Lawyers Division Fellows at the association’s annual convention in Memphis on Friday, June 15.
“Charlie Newman personifies the William Leech Public Service Award, as a great civil rights lawyer, conservationist and visionary who has shaped the history of Memphis and Shelby County,” said TBA YLD Fellows Treasurer Bill Haltom. “He has both witnessed history and made history.”
Newman’s remarkable career in Memphis includes his work assisting his mentor, Lucius Burch, in representing Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. during the 1968 sanitation workers strike, as well as taking Citizens to Preserve Overton Park v. Volpe, a landmark environmental conservation case, all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court in 1971.
A graduate of Yale Law School, Newman has been with Burch, Porter & Johnson since 1965. He has previously been honored with the University of Memphis Cecil C. Humphreys School of Law Alumni Chapter’s Pillar of Excellence Award, and was named “Memphian of the Year” by Memphis Magazine in 2016. Newman is also known for his mentorship of young attorneys, whom he famously meets with during daily lunches at the Little Tea Shoppe on Monroe Avenue.
The Leech Award is presented each year to a Tennessee lawyer who has given outstanding service to the legal profession, the legal system and the local community. It is awarded by the Fellows of the Young Lawyers Division, a nonprofit organization formed to support the development of young attorneys in the state. The award winner is chosen by the Fellows board.
| TBA Law Blog The Tennessee Bar Association (TBA) is the largest professional association in Tennessee with more than 13,000 members. Founded in 1881, the TBA provides opportunities for continuing legal education, professional development and public service. The TBA’s dedication to serving the state’s legal community is evidenced by its membership roll, which represents the entire spectrum of legal practice: plaintiff and defense lawyers, corporate counsel, judges, prosecutors, public defenders, government lawyers and legal services attorneys.