ALEXANDRIA, Va.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Richard (Rick) Story has been selected to receive the prestigious 2024 American Inns of Court Professionalism Award for the Eleventh Circuit. Story, a senior judge for the U.S. District Court of the Northern District of Georgia, will receive the award during the Judicial Conference of the Eleventh Circuit in May.
“Throughout his life and career on the state and federal bench, Judge Story has displayed impeccable character and integrity beyond reproach,” writes Judge Steven D. Grimberg of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Georgia, who nominated Story for the award. “Judge Story has led a life and career that exemplifies what the American Inns of Court is intended to foster and develop within the beloved legal profession that we all share.”
Story has served as a U.S. district judge for the Northern District of Georgia since 1998 and assumed senior status in 2018. In 2016, he was one of five federal judges from the United States to attend the Judges’ Summit Against Human Trafficking and Organized Crime at the Vatican. In 2018, he taught a workshop on investigating and prosecuting human trafficking in Guatemala.
Before joining the Northern District of Georgia, Story served as a judge of the Superior Courts for the Northeastern Judicial Circuit of Georgia. He was first appointed by the state’s governor in 1986, then was re-elected without opposition in three subsequent elections. From 1985 to 1986, Story served as juvenile court judge for Hall County. After law school, he was a special assistant attorney general representing the state of Georgia in child support and custody cases and a partner in the Gainesville law firm Hulsey, Oliver, and Mahar LLP.
Story was president of the Clarke-Carley American Inn of Court from 2005 to 2016. He is also a member of the E. Wycliffe Orr Sr. American Inn of Court.
Story was in the first generation of his family to attend college and earned an undergraduate degree in English from LaGrange College in 1975. He earned his law degree from the University of Georgia School of Law in 1978. When the law school proposed to commission a portrait of Story to hang on its campus, he asked that the funds be used instead to fund a scholarship. The Judge Richard W. (Rick) Story Scholarship Fund now supports students who demonstrate civility, kindness, and other traits associated with Story, with special preference for first-generation students.
The American Inns of Court, headquartered in Alexandria, Virginia, inspires the legal community to advance the rule of law by achieving the highest level of professionalism through example, education, and mentoring. The organization’s membership includes nearly 30,000 federal, state, and local judges; lawyers; law professors; and law students in more than 360 chapters nationwide. More information is available at www.innsofcourt.org.
