Friday, November 17, 2006
Page 3
Former LACBA President Receives Pepperdine Teaching Award
By a MetNews Staff Writer
Professor Richard M. Coleman is the 2006 recipient of Pepperdine University School of Law’s David McKibbin Excellence in Teaching Award, the school said yesterday.
“It is an honor to be chosen from so many distinguished professors for this tribute,” Coleman said in a statement. “David McKibbin was an inspiration to his students and to his fellow teachers. We all strive to emulate him.”
The award is given annually to an adjunct professor at the law school who exemplifies excellence in teaching.
Former School of Law dean and professor, Richardson Lynn, created the award, named in memory of a popular law school faculty member. Past recipients include Immigration Judge Bruce Einhorn, Los Angeles Superior Court Commissioner Terry Adamson, and Superior Court Judges Charles McCoy and Beverly Reid O’Connell.
School of Law Dean Ken Starr said of Coleman:
“Dick’s sterling career dedicated to the pursuit of justice and excellence in the legal profession is outpaced only by his obvious passion to impart his knowledge to the next generation of lawyers and mediators, now in training, at Pepperdine. He is well deserving of this honor.”
Coleman received his law degree from Harvard, and a masters in law from Georgetown. He has more than 40 years of litigation experience and served as a special attorney in labor racketeering prosecutions under then-U.S. Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy in the 1960s.
In 1966-67, Coleman was chief of the Special Prosecutions Division of the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern and Central districts of California.
In private practice since 1967, he established his own firm in 1971. A fellow of the American College of Trial Lawyers, his litigation practice included contract, corporate, entertainment, real estate, security, and tort cases. Currently, he is affiliated with Alternative Resolution Centers in Los Angeles and specializes in mediation and discovery reference matters.
A past president of the Los Angeles County Bar Association and of the National Caucus of Metropolitan Bar Leaders, he recently received the Malibu Bar Association’s Lawyer of the Year Award.
Copyright 2006, Metropolitan News Company