ABOTA Presents Lifetime Achievement Award to Dallas Lawyer Lewis R. Sifford

2007 National President honored at National Board Meeting with organization’s highest honor 

SAN FRANCISCO (Jan. 25, 2018) — The American Board of Trial Advocates presented its highest honor — the Lifetime Achievement Award — to former ABOTA National President Lewis R. Sifford at the organization’s National Board of Directors Meeting on January 20 at the Ritz Carlton in San Francisco. 

The ABOTA Lifetime Achievement Award honors those whose leadership efforts have advanced the preservation of the right to trial by jury guaranteed by the Seventh Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. 

Mr. Sifford is the founding officer of Sifford, Anderson & Company in Dallas and a longtime ABOTA member. He was admitted into the invitation-only association in 1990 and has been active ever since, including serving as President of the Dallas chapter in 1994, President of TEX-ABOTA (all Texas chapters) in 1999 and National President in 2007. He is the ninth recipient of this award in the organization’s 60-year history. 

“On occasion, one among us comes along whose service to ABOTA and to its principles is so exceptional, so selfless, so lengthy and so committed that we recognize them with the highest honor we can bestow,” said National President Cynthia McGuinn when presenting the award. 

Mr. Sifford has been a mainstay within ABOTA and has served as chair or co-chair of numerous committees. He has served on ABOTA’s Executive Committee multiple times, as well as the Presidential Task Force, co-chair of Save Our Juries, chair of Professional Education Committee, and many others. He is currently a Trustee for the ABOTA Foundation. 

“I am deeply honored to receive this wonderful award, but my greatest honor has been the opportunity to serve with so many outstanding men and women and to share with them our association’s messages of ethics, civility and professionalism in the practice of law and the preservation of the Seventh Amendment,” said Mr. Sifford. “I offer my sincerest gratitude to all of them and my hope that I may always be mindful of the significance of this award and live an impactful life in honor of it.” 

Mr. Sifford was also the recipient of the ABOTA Foundation’s Mark P. Robinson Lifetime Achievement Award in 2012 — only the second ever recipient. In 2010, Mr. Sifford served on the faculty of the inaugural ABOTA National Trial College, held on the campus of Princeton University and later at Harvard Law School in 2012, 2014, and 2016. He is slated again as faculty for the 2018 National Trial College at Yale Law School and is an active speaker at many other continuing legal education programs across the country. His speeches on ethics, professionalism and trial practice continue to resonate with new and experienced trial lawyers. 

When presenting the award, Ms. McGuinn quoted Woodrow Wilson: “You are here to enrich the world, and you impoverish yourself if you forget the errand.” 

“Lewis has never forgotten his errand,” she continued. “ABOTA has no better representative, no better friend and no one more deserving of this award.” 

About the American Board of Trial Advocates

Founded in 1958, ABOTA is an invitation-only national association of experienced trial lawyers and judges. ABOTA and its members are dedicated to the preservation and promotion of the civil jury trial right provided by the Seventh Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. ABOTA membership consists of more than 7,600 lawyers — equally balanced between plaintiff and defense — and judges in all 50 states and the District of Columbia.