Fordham-Stein Prize

Fordham Law School Stein Center

The Fordham-Stein Prize is presented annually to a member of the legal profession whose work embodies the highest standards of the legal profession.

Prize recipients exemplify outstanding professional conduct; promote the advancement of justice; and bring credit to the profession by emphasizing in the public mind the contributions of lawyers to our society and to our democratic system of government.

From its inception, the winners of the Prize have been men and women with distinguished careers who reflect a profound commitment to the public good. Past winners include nine Supreme Court Justices; four former United States Attorneys General; three former Secretaries of State; and leaders of the bench and bar.

  • 2024Liz Cheney

    2023Sherrilyn Ifill

    2022Kenneth C. Frazier

    2021 – Robert A. Katzmann

    2020 – Not awarded due to the COVID-19 pandemic

    2019Barbara D. Underwood

    2018Elena Kagan

    2017Anthony Kennedy

    2016Guido Calabresi

    2015Eric H. Holder, Jr.

    2014Mary Jo White

    2013 – Jack B. Weinstein

    2012 – Not awarded due to Hurricane Sandy

    2011 – Kenneth Feinberg

    2010Theodore B. Olson

    2009John F. Keenan

    2008Stephen G. Breyer

    2007 – Robert B. Fiske, Jr.

    2006 – Joseph M. McLaughlin

    2005 – Griffin B. Bell

    2004Patricia M. Wald

    2003 – John D. Feerick

    2002 – Judith S. Kaye

    2001 – Ruth Bader Ginsburg

    2000 – William T. Coleman, Jr.

    1999 – William H. Rehnquist

    1998 – George J. Mitchell

    1997 – Charles Alan Wright

    1996 – Gerald Bard Tjoflat

    1995 – Lloyd N. Cutler

    1994 – Milton Pollack

    1993 – Cyrus Vance

    1992 – Sandra Day O'Connor

    1991 – William P. Rogers

    1990 – William Hughes Mulligan

    1989 – Marian Wright Edelman

    1988 – Robert M. Morgenthau

    1987 – Lewis F. Powell, Jr.

    1986 – Shirley M. Hufstedler

    1985 – Edward Bennett Williams

    1984 – Edward Weinfeld

    1983 – Potter Stewart

    1982 – William H. Webster

    1981 – Warren M. Christopher

    1980 – Archibald Cox

    1979 – Wade H. McCree, Jr.

    1978 – Warren E. Burger

    1977 – Edward H. Levi

    1976 – Henry J. Friendly