NEW YORK—Amy Uelmen, director of the Institute on Religion, Law, and Lawyer’s Work at Fordham Law School, has been named the recipient of the Charles Carroll Award by the Guild of Catholic Lawyers of the Archdiocese of New York.
“Quickly emerging as one of her generation’s pre-eminent scholars on Catholicism and the law, Amy is a dedicated and gifted teacher, a visionary who is changing the world, a person of deep faith and an inspiration to us all,” said William Michael Treanor, J.D., dean of Fordham Law School. “I applaud her well-deserved receipt of this great award.”
Under Uelmen’s direction, and in conjunction with founder Russell G. Pearce, the Institute on Religion, Law, and Lawyer’s Work has gained a national profile and become a standard for other law schools that are seeking to promote dialogue on religious values and the practice of law. The Institute was the model for Pepperdine University School of Law’s own Institute on Law, Religion, and Ethics, established last year. Other law schools, including those at Villanova University, Loyola Marymount University, and St. John’s University, are developing programs and course work based on the Fordham model.
“I am humbled by this distinction, and deeply grateful for the collaborative efforts which have made our project a success,” said Uelmen. “This award is an encouraging sign of increasing openness to how the life of faith can inform all areas of professional life, and of a growing appreciation for a method of dialogue which can open conversations and build bridges of trust, understanding and mutual enrichment, even with what seem to be more ‘secularized’ perspectives and structures.”
The Institute on Religion, Law and Lawyer’s Work was established in 2001 to assist lawyers, judges, legal scholars and law students in their efforts to live integrated lives of faith in the context of today’s legal practice, and to promote dialogue on issues relating to religion and law.
The Guild of Catholic Lawyers of the Archdiocese of New York presents the Charles Carroll Award annually to the Catholic lawyer who has earned distinction in the profession or in public service exemplifying integrity and the highest standards of professional conduct in the promotion and advancement of justice. The award is named after the American patriot Charles Carroll, the only Catholic signatory to the Declaration of Independence.
Past recipients have been Edward Cardinal Egan, of the Archdiocese of New York; Malcolm Wilson, former governor of New York; Joseph Bellacosa, retired judge of the New York Court of Appeals; Edward Re, former chief judge of the Court of International Trade; Joseph McLaughlin, judge on the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit; and John Feerick, professor and former dean of Fordham Law School. The award will be presented on Feb. 3, 2005.
Fordham University School of Law was founded in 1905 and has more than 14,000 alumni practicing in all 50 states and throughout the world. Over the past 20 years, Fordham Law School has secured a place as a national leader in public interest law, legal ethics and human rights law.
