Alumni Award Winners: 2013
The Law Alumni Association congratulates the following members of the Duke Law community for their career accomplishments, service, and dedication to Duke Law.
Charles S. Murphy Award
Christian Broadbent L’99 of Washington, DC
Senior Counsel with U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission
Established in 1985, the Charles S. Murphy Award honors a graduate's commitment to the common good through his or her service to the community or dedication to education. The award is named for the late Charles S. Murphy T'31, L'34, who held positions in the administrations of Presidents Truman, Kennedy, and Johnson and served on the Board of Visitors of Duke Law School and as a Duke University Trustee.
Christian Broadbent graduated from Duke Law School in 1999 with JD and LLM degrees. He worked for WilmerHale and Dewey & LeBoeuf, before joining the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, where he has held several positions.
Starting out in the Division of Investment Management, he worked on rulemaking in the mutual fund area and the implementation of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002. He then became Counsel to Commissioner Annette L. Nazareth, focusing primarily on investment management and enforcement issues, and later advising the Director of Investment Management on emerging regulatory issues. He also served as Senior Counsel to Commissioner Elisse B. Walter, with a diverse portfolio and was involved directly in the regulatory response to the financial crisis and implementation of the Dodd-Frank Act of 2010. Broadbent is currently Senior Advisor to the Chairman, and the Chairman’s representative for matters relating to the Division of Investment Management and Office of Compliance Inspections and Examinations.
A. Kenneth Pye Award
Pam Gann L’73 of Claremont, CA
President, Claremont McKenna College
The A. Kenneth Pye Award honors a member of the Duke Law community whose work in education reflects former Dean A. Kenneth Pye’s life and ideals. Pye is remembered for his personal integrity and vigorous intellect as well as his sensitivity to the needs of individual students and the great compassion with which he assisted those who might have otherwise faltered.
Having spent most of her career at Duke Law School, first as a tax and international law scholar and then as dean from 1988 to 1999, Pamela Gann is leaving an impressive a legacy at Claremont McKenna College in Southern California, where she has been president for 14 years. She has overseen the record-breaking $600 million “Campaign for Claremont,” hired 65% of the present faculty, started three new research institutes and centers on global education and civic engagement, added $200 million in new buildings, and raised new funds for scholarships to support a need-blind admission program. Gann has also emphasized leadership training and development for students. Her legacy at Duke Law, where an endowed professorship is named in her honor, is similar. Gann developed an international network for the LLM and JD programs, built the summer international program in Europe and Asia, and expanded the public law program. She led the Law School’s first capital campaign, which raised more than $17 million, started its second Campaign, and oversaw the initial phases of the Law School’s renovation. Gann established her scholarship endowment fund at Duke while she was dean of the Law School and has continued to increase this fund annually. Gann also serves as an elected member of the Board of Directors of the Council on Foreign Relations, and as a member of the Board of Directors of The Institute for the International Education of Students.
Charles S. Rhyne Award
James Smith L’86 of Wadsworth, IL
Chief Administrative Patent Judge with U.S. Patent and Trademark Office
The Charles S. Rhyne award was established in 1994 to recognize graduates whose careers exemplify the highest standards of professionalism, personal integrity, and commitment to education or community service. It commemorates the life and career of the late Charles S. Rhyne, T’34, L’35, a professor of government and law at American University and George Washington University and a trustee of Duke University and George Washington University.
James Smith was named the first Chief Judge of the Patent Trial and Appeal Board at the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office in September of 2012. In his time as Chief Judge, Smith has overseen the Board’s jurisdictional expansion, its increase in size from 95 judges to 180, and its geographic spread from one D.C.-area site to six sites, including two in D.C. and four others in Michigan, Texas, Colorado, and California. He joined the office in May 2011 when he was appointed as Chief Administrative Patent Judge of the Board of Patent Appeals and Interferences by then U.S. Secretary of Commerce Gary Lock. In past years, Smith served as the Dean of Students at Emory Law School in Atlanta, Georgia, where he also taught intellectual property law and appellate advocacy courses. He has also been a member of the Alumni Future Forum and the Board of Directors of the Law School Alumni Association. In June, he will complete his second three-year term on the Law School Board of Visitors. Smith earned a Bachelor of Science degree in electrical engineering from the University of Maryland. After engineering school and brief service as a Patent Examiner, James enrolled at Duke Law School, where, in his third year of law school, he served as the Chairman of the Moot Court Board.
International Alumni Award
Manuel Sager L’85 of Washington, DC
Swiss Ambassador to the U.S.
The International Alumni Award recognizes and honors an international graduate of the Duke University School of Law who has exemplified the highest standards of professional excellence, personal integrity, and concern for the common welfare in his or her own profession and home country.
Manuel Sager was appointed Ambassador of Switzerland to the United States of America in October 2010 and formally presented his credentials to President Barack Obama on December 7, 2010.
Sager was born in Menziken in the Canton of Aargovia in 1955. He graduated with a Ph.D. from the Law School of the University of Zurich and earned a Master of Laws and Letters degree at Duke University Law School. Sager has an extensive background in global policy. He began his career with the Federal Department of Foreign Affairs in 1988 and has held multiple positions there, beginning as a diplomat in training in Bern and Athens, as head of communications and finally as head of the political affairs division from 2008 to 2010. He has also served as head of communications of the Embassy of Switzerland in Washington, D.C. and headed the Coordination Office for Humanitarian Law EAPC/PfP of the Directorate of International Law. Sager also spent three years as executive director of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development in London.
Young Alumni Award
Sarah Hawkins Warren L’08 of Washington, DC
Associate – Kirkland & Ellis LLP
The Law Alumni Association established the Young Alumni Award in 2000 to honor an individual who has graduated within the past 15 years and has made significant leadership and service contributions to Duke Law School and the legal profession.
Sarah Hawkins Warren is a litigator in the Washington, D.C. office of Kirkland & Ellis, LLP. She previously served as a law clerk to the Honorable Richard J. Leon on the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia and to the Honorable J. L. Edmondson on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit. Before practicing law, she served as the research assistant for policy on the Presidential Debate Prep team for Bush-Cheney 2004, Inc. She later worked on the Presidential Inaugural Committee before serving as Deputy Press Secretary at the White House Office of Management and Budget. Warren graduated magna cum laude from Duke University School of Law, where she was the Editor in Chief of Law & Contemporary Problems and an Executive Board Member of the Federalist Society. She holds a B.A. in Public Policy and Spanish, magna cum laude, from Duke University.
Outside of work, Warren is involved in a number of a number of philanthropic and educational organizations. In 2000, she founded the Mount Kenya Academy Foundation to support the construction of a high school in Nyeri, Kenya. She remains involved in the strategic development of the school, which now serves over 350 boarding students. She serves on Duke University’s Annual Fund Executive Committee; is the immediate past Chair of the Duke Law Alumni Association’s New Lawyers’ Division; and serves as the Vice President of the National Board of Directors for Duke’s Young Alumni Development Council.
Dean’s Achievement Award
Rick Horvitz L’78 of Moreland Hills, OH
CEO – Moreland Management Company
The Dean's Alumni Achievement Award honors a Duke Law graduate who has demonstrated extraordinary service, commitment, and dedication to Duke Law School.
Richard Horvitz is Chairman of Moreland Management Company, a closely-held private family investment office. An attorney by training, Horvitz worked at Baker & Hostetler’s Cleveland office before joining his family’s operating businesses which were later sold in 1987.
Horvitz was born and raised in Cleveland, Ohio. He received his A.B. with honors in Economics from Princeton University in 1975 and received his J.D. from Duke University School of Law in 1978. He is a member of both the Florida and Ohio bars. Horvitz is a life member of the Board of Visitors of Duke University School of Law and served as a member of its Campaign Planning Committee. He also serves on the Board of Trustees of the Jewish Community Federation of Cleveland; as a Life Trustee of the Board of University School (an independent country day school in Cleveland) where he also serves on the Investment Committee; and as a member of the University Hospitals Emeritus Leadership Council after having served for 16 years on the Board of Directors of University Hospitals of Cleveland Case Medical Center. He has been a member of the Board of Directors of the Children’s Tumor Foundation since 1996 and is currently an Honorary Director.