Deputy Chief Justice Lisabeth Tabor Hughes (Ret.) to Receive the 2023 American Inns of Court Professionalism Award for the Sixth Circuit

Lisabeth Tabor Hughes has been selected to receive the prestigious 2023 American Inns of Court Professionalism Award for the Sixth Circuit. Before retiring in early 2023, Hughes had served as a justice of the Supreme Court of Kentucky since 2007 and deputy chief justice since 2017. She will receive the award during the 2023 Sixth Circuit Judicial Conference.

During her term, Hughes chaired Kentucky’s Civil Justice Reform Commission, a group of judges, legislators, lawyers, and clerks working to make the state’s civil justice system more efficient. “In her role as chair, Justice Hughes led the effort to create Kentucky’s first Business Court Docket and was integral in the development of the first statewide civil case cover sheet,” writes Laurance B. VanMeter, chief justice of the Supreme Court of Kentucky, who nominated Hughes for the award. “She also advocated for the use of a ‘case triage’ system to more efficiently move civil matters through the court system.’”

In 2016, President Barack Obama nominated Hughes for the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit, but her nomination expired with the end of the congressional session.

Before joining the Supreme Court of Kentucky, Hughes spent three years as a judge of the Kentucky Court of Appeals and nearly eight years as a judge of the Jefferson Circuit Court. Earlier in her career, Hughes practiced law in Louisville, specializing in business and commercial litigation.

Hughes is a past president of the Louis D. Brandeis American Inn of Court. Hughes also chaired the Alumni Council for the University of Louisville Louis D. Brandeis School of Law. In 2019, the Kentucky Bar Association named Hughes a “Distinguished Judge.” That year, she also received the Lawrence Grauman Award from the Louis D. Brandeis School of Law. Among additional honors, she has received the Judge Benjamin F. Shobe Civility and Professionalism Award from the Louisville Bar Association and the Access to Justice Champion Award from the Legal Aid Society.

Hughes earned a summa cum laude undergraduate degree from the University of Louisville in 1977. In 1980, she earned a magna cum laude law degree from the University of Louisville Louis D. Brandeis School of Law, where she served as executive editor of the Law Review and was named “outstanding graduate” of her class.

The American Inns of Court, headquartered in Alexandria, Virginia, inspires the legal community to advance the rule of law by achieving the highest level of professionalism through example, education, and mentoring. The organization’s membership includes nearly 30,000 federal, state, and local judges; lawyers; law professors; and law students in more than 360 chapters nationwide. More information is available at www.innsofcourt.org.

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