The Tennessee Bar Association honored Tennessee Supreme Court Justice Janice M. Holder with the group’s Justice Frank F. Drowota III Outstanding Judicial Service Award.
Justice Holder was recognized for her service with lawyers’ assistance programs and access to justice issues. She serves as the Supreme Court’s liaison to the Access to Justice Commission. The commission works to recommend and develop programs that improve access to justice in Tennessee.
The Drowota Award is given to a judge or judicial branch official of a federal, state or local court in Tennessee who has demonstrated extraordinary devotion and dedication to the improvement of the law, the legal system and the administration of justice as exemplified by the career of former Supreme Court Justice Frank F. Drowota III – the award’s first recipient. The award was presented Friday at the TBA Annual Convention held last week in Nashville.
Justice Holder was appointed to the Supreme Court of Tennessee in December 1996 and was elected to eight-year terms in August 1998 and in August 2006. On September 1, 2008, she began a two-year term as the Tennessee Supreme Court's first female Chief Justice. Before her appointment to the Supreme Court, she was elected to Division II of the Circuit Court of Tennessee for the Thirtieth Judicial District at Memphis where she served for six years.
Janice M. Holder is a summa cum laude graduate of the University of Pittsburgh and a 1975 graduate of the Duquesne University School of Law.
Justice Holder has received numerous awards throughout her service as a state court judge and a justice of the Supreme Court of Tennessee, the latest of which include the 2008 Grayfred Gray Public Service Mediation Award, the 2009 Jurist of the Year Award from the Southeastern Region of the American Board of Trial Advocates, and the 2009 W.J. Michael Cody Pro Bono Attorney of the Year Award from the Memphis Area Legal Services.
