State bar to honor Karen Baynes-Dunning with Benham Award

ATLANTA — Karen Baynes-Dunning, a former Juvenile Court judge and the wife of Albany State University President Art Dunning, will be honored later this month with a Justice Robert Benham Award for Community Service.

Since 1998, the Benham Awards have been presented to lawyers and judges in Georgia who have made significant contributions to their communities and who have demonstrated positive contributions beyond their legal or official work.

The Lifetime Achievement Award is the highest recognition given by the State Bar of Georgia and the Chief Justice’s Commission on Professionalism, co-sponsors of the Justice Robert Benham Awards for Community Service.

This year, Lifetime Achievement Awards will be presented to Neal W. Dickert of Hull Barrett P.C. in Augusta, Alcovy Judicial Circuit Superior Court Judge Horace J. Johnson Jr. of Covington and Former state Sen. Leroy R. Johnson of Atlanta.

The award is presented to lawyers or judges who, in addition to meeting the criteria for receiving the Justice Robert Benham Award for Community Service, have demonstrated a long and distinguished commitment to volunteer participation in the community throughout his or her legal career.

Benham Awards are also given to selected attorneys in the judicial districts of Georgia from which nominations were received. This year’s other recipients are Denise M. Cooper of the Savannah City Attorney’s Office; Baynes-Dunning of Albany; Erikka B. Williams of Bonaire, with the Houston Judicial Circuit District Attorney’s Office; Dawn M. Jones of the Atlanta-based Dawn M. Jones LLC law firm; Jeffrey Y. Lewis of Arnall Golden Gregory LLP in Atlanta; W. Scott Sorrels of Sutherland Asbill & Brennan LLP in Atlanta, and J. Virgil Costley Jr. of Georgia Piedmont Technical College in Covington.

“I am extremely honored and humble. I have known Justice Benham since I was a baby lawyer,” Baynes-Dunning said. “This marks my 25th year with the bar, and to be honored with an award named after (Benham) is such a huge honor for me because he has epitomized to me what the law is really all about. It’s about service and helping communities. The reason I became a lawyer because I feel it is a vehicle where you can make a positive impact.”

The latest group of Benham Award honorees have served a wide range of community organizations, government-sponsored activities, and humanitarian efforts outside of their professional practices and judicial duties. Their fields of service include youth athletics and mentoring programs, literacy programs, social services, church and religious activities, politics, promotion and support for legal aid programs, community development, education, sports, recreation and the arts.

The awards recognize the commitment of Georgia lawyers and judges to volunteerism, encourage all to become involved in community service, improve the quality of lawyers’ and judges’ lives through the satisfaction they derive from helping others, and raise the public image of their profession. All honorees are members of the State Bar of Georgia.

Baynes-Dunning said she is surprised to be receiving the award.

“This came as a surprise to me,” she said. “I was nominated by the Georgia Association of Black Women Attorneys, and I was definitely not expecting this. I think, throughout my career, community service has always been a part of who I am. I get that from my parents and my grandparents. But for someone to take the time to nominate me truly was a surprise.”

Baynes-Dunning earned her bachelor of arts in politics from Wake Forest University and her juris doctorate from the Boalt Hall School of Law at the University of California at Berkeley. She has worked throughout her career toward improving child and family-serving systems within the legal arena, and has served or has been appointed to several committees and commissions in regard to her work with those services.

The awards presentation is scheduled for Feb. 28 at the State Bar of Georgia headquarters in Atlanta.