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Secretary Riley receives lifetime achievement award


Last updated March 10, 2022

By Clinton Colmenares, Director of News and Media Strategy

The American Bar Foundation (ABF) has presented the inaugural Lifetime Achievement Award in Law and Education to former Secretary of Education and South Carolina Governor Richard “Dick” W. Riley ’54, for whom The Riley Institute at Furman University is named.

The award was presented by the president of the American Bar Association on Feb. 24, at a dinner the evening before the start of the William Hubbard Conference on Law and Education at the University of South Carolina School of Law. The award recognizes “Riley’s lifelong leadership, commitment and passion for improving education in the United States and abroad,” according to an ABF press release.

“I am so honored to have been selected for the American Bar Foundation’s Lifetime Achievement in Law and Education Award,” Riley said in a statement prior to the award dinner. “I am particularly proud that the award encompasses my top lifetime passions—the law and education. It is a very personal pleasure that the award is to be presented at the inaugural William Hubbard Conference on Law and Education to be held at the University of South Carolina School of Law—the law alma mater of myself and my very dear, longtime friend and former law partner, William Hubbard.”

Riley is also a senior partner in the law firm Nelson Mullins Riley and Scarborough.

“What Dick Riley has accomplished and continues to accomplish for the good of South Carolina and the nation is more than what most could do in five lifetimes,” Don Gordon, executive director of The Riley Institute, said. “I can’t think of a more fitting individual to be recognized with this first-ever achievement award from the American Bar Foundation than the man whose influence has shaped the many leaders following in his footsteps.”

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Clinton Colmenares
Director of News and Media Strategy