The American Bar Association’s Center for Professional Responsibility will award the 2020 Michael Franck Professional Responsibility Award to Shearman & Sterling Of Counsel Bob Mundheim. At a time when lawyers’ dedication to the public good is often questioned, the Franck award recognizes lawyers whose careers demonstrate a commitment to legal ethics and professional responsibility.

“I am deeply honored to have been chosen to join the distinguished group of recipients of the Michael Franck Professional Responsibility Award,” Bob said.

This award is given to a lawyer who has demonstrated extraordinary professional responsibility throughout his or her career.

Bob has had an extraordinary and varied career in which a commitment to professional responsibility has been consistently demonstrated.

As Dean of the University of Pennsylvania Law School, Bob played a prominent role in launching its Center on Professionalism, in the creation of an intensive first-year course in professional responsibility and the adoption of a mandatory pro bono obligation for its students (a first then for a major law school).

He has served on countless continuing legal education panels examining professional responsibility such as the Practising Law Institute’s Annual Institute on Securities Regulation. Bob served as an adviser on the American Law Institute’s Restatement of the Law Governing Lawyers. He was a member of the ABA Task Force on Corporate Responsibility and Vice Chair of the Working Group on Lawyers’ Representation of Regulated Clients.

He also served for six years on the Standing Committee on Ethics and Professional Responsibility, three of them as Chair.