Past Honorees
2024 James J. Fuld Award Honoree – Andrew Kaufman
The recipient of the 2024 James J. Fuld Award was Andrew Kaufman.
2023 James J. Fuld Award Honoree – Ettore Santucci
The recipient of the 2023 James J. Fuld Award was Ettore Santucci.
2022 James J. Fuld Award Honoree – William B. Dunn
The recipient of the 2022 James J. Fuld Award was William B. Dunn.
Bill Dunn serves as Of Counsel to Clark Hill PLC. He has served as chair of the ABA RPTE Section as well as chair of its Legal Opinions Committee, and as President of the American College of Real Estate Lawyers and chair of its committees on Attorney Opinions and on Professional Responsibility. Bill has presented at many CLE programs, written numerous published articles, and served as reporter for reports related to opinions in real estate finance. He serves as an Advisory Board Member of WGLO.
2021 James J. Fuld Award Honoree – Reade Ryan, Jr.
The recipient of the 2021 James J. Fuld Award was Reade Ryan, Jr..
2020 James J. Fuld Award Honoree – Richard R. Howe
The recipient of the 2020 James J. Fuld Award was Richard R. Howe.
2019 James J. Fuld Award Honoree – Gail Merel
The recipient of the 2019 James J. Fuld Award was Gail Merel.
Ms. Merel is special counsel to the law firm of Hunton Andrews Kurth LLP. She is the current chair of the Legal Opinions Committee of the Business Law Section of the State Bar of Texas and a member of the TriBar Opinion Committee and the WGLO Board of Directors. She has served as editor-in-chief of the WGLO seminar handbooks since 2006 and was also the reporter and co-author, with ten other WGLO participants, of the article Common Qualifications to a Remedies Opinion in U.S. Commercial Loan Transactions which was published in the Winter 2014/2015 issue of the Business Lawyer. She is currently working as the reporter and co-author of an article on Laws Commonly Excluded From the Coverage of Third-Party Opinions in U.S. Commercial Loan Transactions.
2018 James J. Fuld Award Honorees – John B. Power and Robert A. Thompson
The recipients of the 2018 James J. Fuld Award were John B. Power and Robert A. Thompson.
2017 James J. Fuld Award Honoree – Linda Hayman
The recipient of the 2017 James J. Fuld Award was Linda Hayman.
2016 James J. Fuld Award Honoree – Steven O. Weise
The recipient of the 2016 James J. Fuld Award was Steven O. Weise.
Steven O. Weise is a partner in the Corporate Department and practices in all areas of commercial law. Steven’s experience in financing is extensive, especially in those secured by personal property, including structured financing. He also handles matters involving California real property anti-deficiency laws, workouts, guarantees, sales of goods, equipment leasing, commercial paper and checks, letters of credit, and investment securities. Steven’s experience covers e-commerce, contract law (including “plain English” drafting), legal opinions, and consumer credit law compliance matters. In addition, Steven lectures widely on commercial law topics and legal opinion letters and is the author of over 100 articles on these topics.
2015 James J. Fuld Award Honoree – Stanley Keller
The recipient of the 2015 James J. Fuld Award was Stanley Keller.
Mr. Keller has served as past Chair of the ABA Business Law Section’s Committees on Federal Regulation of Securities, Audit Responses and Legal Opinions, and is a member of TriBar Opinion Committee and the WGLO Board of Directors. He also served as the reporter for TriBar’s Remedies Opinion Report and Preferred Stock Opinion Report, and as a co-reporter for the Choice-of-Law Report. Among his many publications, he co-authored the Boston Bar’s form of Streamlined Closing Opinion. Mr. Keller is Of Counsel at Locke Lord.
2014 James J. Fuld Award Honoree – TriBar Opinion Committee
The recipient of the 2014 James J. Fuld Award was the TriBar Opinion Committee.
The award was presented to members of the Committee in attendance at the Fall 2014 Seminar.
2012 James J. Fuld Award Honoree – James J. Fuld
The recipient of the 2012 James J. Fuld Award was James J. Fuld.
2011 James J. Fuld Award Honoree – Jerome E. Hyman
The recipient of the 2011 James J. Fuld Award was Jerome E. Hyman.
The award was presented by Truman Bidwell. Jerry is senior counsel to Cleary, Gottlieb, Steen & Hamilton and is based in their New York office. Jerry has been a guiding hand in the Tri Bar Opinion Committee as well as the ABA Legal Opinion Committee.
2010 James J. Fuld Award Honoree – The Honorable Thomas L. Ambro
The recipient of the 2010 James J. Fuld Award was the Honorable Thomas L. Ambro.
Judge Ambro served as Chair of the ABA Section of Business Law Legal Opinions Committee and has been a frequent speaker and author in the field of Legal Opinion. He was, for example, the principle author of the 1993 TriBar Report [Security Interest Opinions].
2009 James J. Fuld Award Honoree – Donald W. Glazer
The recipient of the 2009 James J. Fuld award was Donald W. Glazer.
Mr. Glazer is the principal author of Glazer and Fitzgibbon on Legal Opinions, the widely-recognized authoritative work on legal opinions, and has served as Co-Chair of the TriBar Opinion Committee, Steering Committee member of the WGLO, former Chair of the ABA Business Law Section Legal Opinions Committee and former Co-Chair of the Boston Bar Association Section of Business Law Legal Opinions Committee.
2008 James J. Fuld Award Honoree – Arthur Norman Field
On October 28, 2008, the WGLO presented the first James J. Fuld Award to Arthur Norman Field of Field Consulting LLP.
Mr. Field worked closely with Mr. Fuld in establishing the TriBar Opinion Committee and he wrote an article on opinions with Mr. Fuld. Further, Mr. Field was a significant contributor to many of the articles written by the TriBar Opinion Committee. Mr. Field served as Chair of the TriBar Opinion Committee as well as Chair of the ABA Legal Opinion Committee.