The Brody award

The Morton A. Brody Distinguished Judicial Service Award will be presented at 8 p.m. Sunday in the Lorimar Chapel at Colby College to the U.S. 1st Circuit Court of Appeals Judge Frank M. Coffin of South Portland. Coffin, 86, who has served as an appellate judge for more than 40 years, will deliver a speech titled “My Judicial Key Ring” at the award ceremony.

This year’s Brody award events include a panel discussion at 4 p.m. Sunday in Room 100 of the Lovejoy Building on the U.S. Supreme Court under the leadership of Chief Justice John Roberts. Panelists will include former Maine Attorney General James Tierney, Derek Langhauser, general counsel for the Maine Community College System, Judge Nancy Gertner of the U.S. District Court of Massachusetts, and 2nd Circuit Court of Appeals Judge Robert Katzmann.

A graduate of Bates College in Lewiston, Brody earned his law degree from the University of Chicago in 1958. After a stint in private practice, he was appointed a Maine Superior Court justice, and, later, an associate justice of the Maine Supreme Judicial Court. President George Bush nominated him in 1991 to be a U.S. District Judge in Bangor.

The award was established to recognize a federal or state judge who demonstrates the qualities of integrity, compassion, humanity and judicial excellence that Brody exemplified. It was created by his family at Colby College’s Goldfarb Center for Public Affairs and Civic Engagement in Waterville after the judge’s death in 2000. A longtime Waterville resident, Brody taught courses on the judicial system at the college.

Coffin is the first Maine resident to receive the honor. Previous recipients include 2nd Circuit Court of Appeals Judge Guido Calabresi of New York and 7th Circuit Court of Appeals Judge Ann Claire Williams of Chicago.

For more information, visit www.colby.edu/brody.