Every year during the State Bar Convention, AWLA awards the Sarah Herring Soring award to an AWLA Member who has demonstrated support and encouragement for the advancement of women in the legal profession. The award is conferred at the Mary Anne Richey Scholarship Breakfast, during which AWLA raises funds for the Mary Anne Richey Scholarship.
The award is named in honor of Sarah Herring Sorin (1861-1914), Arizona's first woman lawyer. In the early 1900's, she became the twenty-fifth woman to argue a case before the United States Supreme Court. She practiced throughout the Arizona Territory, developing a specialty in mining law. She studied law under her father, and during much of her career, father and daughter practiced law together. She was admitted to the Arizona bar in 1902.
Past recipients of the award are Helen Perry Grimwood, Doris F. Mindell, Roxana C. Bacon, Grace McIlvain, the Hon. Mary M. Schroeder, Barbara A. Atwood, Laura A. Cardinal, Amy Schwartz, Georgia A. Staton, the Hon. Janis Ann Sterling (ret.), the Hon. Ruth V. McGregor (ret.), and Amelia Craig Cramer.
2009 Sarah Herring Sorin Nomination Form and Instructions