The School of Law will celebrate the outstanding achievements of six individuals April 13 at its annual Distinguished Alumni Awards Dinner at The Ritz-Carlton, St. Louis.
Distinguished Law Alumni Award recipients are Michael T. Hannafan, Frederick O. Hanser, Andrew J. Higgins and P. Scott Neville. H. Christopher Boehning and Kathy A. Surratt-States will receive Distinguished Young Law Alumni Awards.
In 1979, Hannafan, J.D., established Hannafan & Hannafan Ltd., which is devoted exclusively to general trial and litigation practice, including personal injury, professional malpractice, criminal defense and a variety of complex commercial cases.
Hannafan is a fellow of the American College of Trial Law-yers, an adjunct professor of trial advocacy at Northwestern University and listed in “Best Law-yers of America.”
In May 2005, he was appointed a special master by the U.S. District Court in Tennessee for E.I. DuPont v. Cardinal Health to review all documents to which the parties have asserted client-attorney privilege.
Since 1996, Hanser, J.D., has been the vice chairman and a director of the St. Louis Cardinals LLC.
Prior to his role with the Cardinals, he practiced law for 30 years, concentrating his practice in banking, corporate and estate taxation and venture capital.
Hanser is actively involved in St. Louis civic and community organizations, including, but not limited to, his service on the boards of Backstoppers, the St. Louis Community Foundation and St. Luke’s Hospital.
Higgins, J.D., is a retired chief justice of the Supreme Court of Missouri and World War II veteran. Since his retirement from the bench, he has been of counsel with Inglish & Monaco.
Higgins has served as chair of the National Council of Juvenile and Family Court Judges Appellate Judges Training Project on children’s issues and the Missouri Supreme Court Task Force on Permanency Planning for Abused and Neglected Children.
In 1992, the Missouri Juvenile Justice Association doubly honored him with the inaugural Andrew Higgins Excellence in Juvenile Justice Award.
Neville, J.D., judge on the First District Appellate Court in Illinois, clerked for First District Appellate Court Judge Glenn T. Johnson, becoming the first African-American lawyer to clerk for an appellate judge in Cook County.
In 1977, Neville entered private practice, handling plaintiff and defense matters. He was involved in some high-profile civil rights cases, including the 1992 federal class-action suit that sought to remap Chicago voting wards. Since 1993, he has been an instructor at the University of Chicago Law School.
As a past president of the Cook County Bar Association, Neville was instrumental in creating and nurturing the Alliance of Bar Associations for Judicial Evaluation, a diverse coalition.
Boehning, J.D., a partner in the litigation department at Paul Weiss Rifkind Wharton and Garrison LLP in New York, has a diversified practice that includes white-collar criminal and civil litigation, regulatory inquiries and internal investigations in fields such as securities, commodities, insurance, antitrust, copyright, trademark and advertising.
He spent a year living in Japan representing Sumitomo Corp. in connection with regulatory inquiries and civil litigation arising out of unauthorized trading conducted by Sumitomo’s former chief copper trader, and he continues to advise clients on Japan-related matters.
In 1997, Surratt-States, J.D., judge with the U.S. Bankruptcy Court of the Eastern District of Missouri was appointed to the Panel of Bankruptcy Trustees for the Eastern District of Missouri, and in 1999, she served as the Chapter 7 Trustee for Family Company of America (National Foods), then the third-largest grocery chain in St. Louis.
She practiced as a partner in the Husch & Eppenberger insolvency practice group until her March 2003 swearing-in.
Surratt-States is active in both professional and charitable organizations.
She received the Bar Association of Metropolitan St. Louis President’s Outstanding Service Award in 2002 and is a member and past president of Altrusa International of St. Louis, an association of professionals dedicated to community service.