Gordon Bonnyman
Bonnyman Wins Justice Award
The international law firm of Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom and the University of Alabama School of Law have announced that Gordon Bonnyman Jr. ’72 will receive the 2009 Morris Dees Justice Award on November 12 in New York City.
In 2006, the two partnered to create the award in honor of Alabama graduate and civil rights attorney Morris Dees, who is a cofounder the Southern Poverty Law Center in Montgomery, Alabama. The center is internationally known for tracking hate groups and extremist activity, conducting tolerance training education, and winning cases against white supremacists.
Bonnyman has spent his entire career representing low-income clients, the elderly, prisoners, disabled persons, and the uninsured. He has been the lead counsel in more than a dozen class action lawsuits, many of which have served as models for legal services organizations throughout the United States.
After graduating from UT, he began his career with the Legal Aid Society of Middle Tennessee and The Cumberlands. In 1996, in response to new lobbying restrictions placed on legal services organizations, he founded the Tennessee Justice Center (TJC) with fellow attorney Michele Johnson. He initially worked without a salary until additional funding could be secured.
A seasoned and successful litigator, Bonnyman is also an accomplished legislative advocate and policy analyst. He lobbied for nursing home regulatory reform in Tennessee, which was adopted in 1987.
This article appears in the Fall 2009 issue of Tennessee Law Magazine.