Law School names distinguished alumnus

Richard H. Sinkfield, a senior partner with the Atlanta law firm of Rogers & Hardin and first associate county attorney, Fulton County, Ga., has been named the 1995 recipient of the Distinguished Alumnus Award from the Vanderbilt School of Law.

The award, to be presented Saturday, Oct. 14, at the Law School Alumni Gala Brunch, is presented annually in recognition of outstanding professional accomplishment to a recognized leader in a particular field of endeavor. The award's criteria also call for the recipient to demonstrate balance of temperament and to manifest the values of a Vanderbilt School of Law education.

A 1971 graduate of the Vanderbilt School of Law, Sinkfield is a past member of Law Alumni Board and currently serves on the Vanderbilt University Board of Trust.

During his years as a law student at Vanderbilt, Sinkfield was a member of the Moot Court Board and the Law Students Civil Rights Research Council, and he was vice president of the Phi Alpha Delta legal fraternity. He received awards for the best oral argument in the First Year Moot Court Program and the Second Year Appellate Argument Program, and he received a citation for runner-up for the Best Brief Award in the Second Year Appellate Argument Program.

Sinkfield's legal practice emphasizes business dispute resolution including arbitration, mediation and litigation. A fellow of the American College of Trial Lawyers and the American Bar Association, he is a member of the State Bar of Georgia, the Atlanta Bar Association and the Gate City Bar Association. He has served on the American Bar Association's special commission on evaluation of professional standards and its standing committee on ethics and professional responsibility. He was special liaison to the ABA's standing committees on professional discipline and lawyer's responsibility for client protection.

Sinkfield is a member of the Board of Governors of the State Bar of Georgia and the Lawyers Club of Atlanta. In 1991, he was appointed counsel to the board of ethics for the Atlanta Committee for the Olympic Games.

He serves on the board of directors of Weyerhaeuser Co., United Auto Group, Inc. and Turner Theological Seminary, and he is on the advisory board of the Atlanta Legal Aid Society. A past chairman of the ethics committee of the Atlanta Council of Young Lawyers, Sinkfield was vice chair of the Georgia Bar Association's committee on code of professional responsibility and was a member of the board of directors of the American Judicature Society.

His many civic and community activities include membership on numerous foundation and association boards including the Atlanta College of Art, Exodus, Families First, Research Atlanta, Zoo Atlanta, Georgia Health Decisions, Atlanta Urban League, Metropolitan Atlanta Community Foundation and Leadership Atlanta.