The American Bar Association recently announced that BASF’s nominee, Terry Stewart, San Francisco’s Chief Deputy City Attorney, has been named a recipient of the 2013 Margaret Brent Women Lawyers of Achievement Award.  The award, established by the ABA Commission on Women in the Profession in 1991, recognizes and celebrates the accomplishments of women lawyers who have excelled in their field and have paved the way to success for other women lawyers.

In its nomination letter, BASF noted that Stewart was a worthy recipient for the award for many reasons, most notably her many years of mentoring women attorneys, her service to the bar and for being a trailblazer in the San Francisco Bay Area legal community.

The nomination letter went on to cite her involvement in the Proposition 8 cases. During the years-long trials, she mentored several women attorneys on the cases, and during Perry, Stewart’s trial team had two younger women lawyers in front and center roles (one of whom was nine months pregnant).

In the mid-1980s Stewart served on the board of BALIF, the nation’s oldest and largest bar association of lesbians, gay men, bisexuals and transgender persons. She has remained active in BALIF and recently took part in their “It Gets Better” video series aimed at reminding LGBT youth they are not alone.

Terry Stewart helped establish the National Center for Lesbian Rights and serves on a task force of the California Judicial Council’s Commission on Judicial Independence and the board of directors of the Legal Aid Society – Employment Law Center.  She is a member of the American Bar Association’s Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity Commission.

Stewart became very involved with BASF in the early 1980s and served as the first chair of our Committee on Sexual Orientation.  She oversaw development of a groundbreaking report and recommendations on eliminating sexual orientation discrimination for legal employers.

She also co-founded BASF’s Law Academy, a partnership with two high schools, to prepare juniors and seniors to join the workforce. In 1999, Stewart served as the first openly gay president of BASF.  During that year, she developed the blueprint for the School-To-College program, which was designed to serve first generation college bound and at-risk youth.

The award will be presented at the ABA’s Commission on Women in the Profession’s 23rd Annual Margaret Brent Women Lawyers of Achievement Awards Luncheon on August 11. Congratulations to Terry Stewart!