The Berrien County Bar Association has created a new award they are calling the Lifetime Achievement Award which they plan to bestow on worthy individuals "from time-to-time" who have exhibited outstanding leadership within the legal community and recognize those outstanding lawyers who have earned the respect of their peers while demonstrating the highest standards of integrity, professionalism, and excellence over the course of a long career in our community.
The first such award was administered this evening at the Berrien County Bar Association meeting which followed the group's annual golf outing at the Point O'Woods Country Club in Benton Harbor, and their choice clearly establishes a gold standard for the future.
The first ever winner of the Berrien County Bar Association Lifetime Achievement Award is St. Joseph Attorney Paul A. Taglia of the law firm of Taglia, Dumke & White, P.C.
Paul has been practicing law in the region since being admitted to both the Berrien County Bar and the Michigan Bar in 1959. He was a graduate of Bridgman High School who went on to earn his Bachelor's degree from the University of Notre Dame in 1953 and his law degree from the Notre Dame Law School six years later in 1959. He also served his country honorably as a United States Marine.
Taglia was nominated by fellow attorney Carl Burdick of St. Joseph who says that the executive committee of the Bar Association unanimously concurred following overwhelming support from other members of the bar. Carl tells me that the nomination form asked why he was being nominated to which he replied, "He has been an outstanding lawyer throughout his long career. I have known and worked with many fine trial lawyers during the course of my 50+ years of practicing, but none, in my opinion, has surpassed Paul in trial acumen or professionalism. It is my belief that I have not encountered a better all-around lawyer. I will not list his credentials here, except to point out that he was chosen by his peers, other pre-eminent lawyers, as a Fellow of American College of Trial Lawyers."
Paul comes from strong stock, his father having been on the Attorney General's staff in the State of Illinois. His daughter lives in Canada where she has been a collegiate professor and both sons have attended and finished law school and have been admitted to the bar even as both are practicing physicians according to Burdick.
Paul's wife, Jackie Taglia, was an ardent advocate for the environment, and herself a recipient of the Berrien County Bar Association's Liberty Bell Award until her untimely death. The recycling center at the St. Joseph Department of Public Works is named after her for her strong commitment of stewardship to our planet.
The legal community has clearly set the bar high with their inaugural Lifetime Achievement Award honor going to Attorney Paul Taglia of St. Joseph.
