Indiana Court of Appeals Judge Melissa S. May Receives ISBA Women in the Law Recognition Award
Judge Melissa S. May of the Court of Appeals of Indiana has received the Indiana State Bar Association’s Women in the Law Recognition Award for her dedication to helping women advance in the legal community.
Judge May received the award Oct. 20 at the ISBA’s annual meeting in French Lick.
Judge May is an Elkhart native who earned her JD from Indiana University School of Law-Indianapolis in 1984. She practiced law in Evansville for 14 years before her appointment to the Court of Appeals in 1998. She is currently the Presiding Judge of the Fourth District.
State Court Administration Staffers Selected to National Boards
Two Indiana Supreme Court staff members have been selected to serve on national boards. Judicial Qualifications Commission Attorney, Adrienne Meiring, will serve on the Board for the Association of Judicial Disciplinary Counsel (AJDC). Supreme Court Public Information Officer, Kathryn Dolan, will serve as Treasurer for the Conference of Court Public Information Officers (CCPIO).
Jan Aikman Dickson Joins Warren E. Burger Society
Jan Aikman Dickson, founder of the Judicial Family Institute, was inducted into the Warren E. Burger Society during the National Center for State Courts’ (NCSC) Annual Recognition Luncheon on Friday, November 18.
Membership in the Warren E. Burger Society honors individuals who have demonstrated an exemplary commitment to improving the administration of justice through their contributions of service or support to NCSC. The society is named for the former chief justice of the U.S. Supreme Court who helped found the National Center in 1971.
Mrs. Dickson helped found the Judicial Family Institute (JFI) — a national nonpartisan organization dedicated to providing information and education to judicial households and the extended family members of judges — in 1987, shortly after her husband, Justice Brent E. Dickson, was appointed to the Indiana Supreme Court. After encountering and hearing about the conflicts of interest that family members of judges often have in areas such as employment, politics, gifts, investments, and charitable fundraising, she saw the need for those family members to have access to information about judicial codes of conduct as well as managing other aspects of life in the public eye. With assistance from the Indiana Bar Foundation, judges and their spouses, and national organizations such as NCSC, Mrs. Dickson encouraged the development of educational materials and programs for the families of judges.