The Nashville Bar Association recently bestowed one of its top honors on 20th Judicial District Circuit Court Judge Joe P. Binkley Jr. at its recent 2019 Law Day luncheon in Nashville.
At the luncheon, Judge Binkley was named the recipient of the NBA’s annual Liberty Bell Award, which is “given to a person or group who [has] promoted better understanding of the rule of law, encouraged greater respect for law and the courts, stimulated a sense of civic responsibility, or contributed to good government.”
Nashville attorney Edward D. Lanquist Jr. presented Judge Binkley with the award.
Judge Binkley had been an attorney in private practice in Nashville for 39 years when he was appointed to the 20th Judicial Circuit Court in April 2008 by Governor Phil Bredesen. Judge Binkley won election to a full term on the bench in August 2008 and was reelected in August 2014.
Judge Binkley is a member of the Nashville Bar Association, the Tennessee Bar Association, and the Tennessee Trial Lawyers Association. He is also a fellow of the Nashville Bar Foundation as well as the Tennessee Bar Foundation.
Judge Binkley received his juris doctor from Vanderbilt University Law School and his Bachelor of Science degree from Vanderbilt University.
The Nashville Bar Association celebrates Law Day each year with a luncheon featuring a guest speaker and the conferral of awards. The theme of this year’s Law Day luncheon, “Free Speech, Free Press, Free Society,” was discussed at the luncheon by United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit Senior Judge Martha Craig Daughtrey.
The other major award of the day, the Jack Norman, Sr. Award, was given to First Assistant Federal Public Defender Mariah A. Wooten by United States District Court Chief Judge Waverly Crenshaw. That award, according to a news release, is “given to an attorney whose primary practice or service pertains to criminal law, demonstrates respect for the rights of all individuals in the criminal justice system, exhibits the trial advocacy skills or judicial skills necessary to the pursuit of justice, demonstrates an abiding respect for the law and legal profession, maintains highest standards of professional integrity and ethical conduct, and contributes to the improvement of the legal profession and criminal justice system.”
Judge Binkley’s father, longtime attorney Joe P. Binkley Sr., was himself the recipient of the Jack Norman, Sr. Award in 2001.
Past recipients of the NBA’s Liberty Bell Award include former Tennessee Supreme Court Justice and current Nashville School of Law Dean William C. Koch Jr., United State District Court Senior Judge Todd J. Campbell, and noted newspaper editor and First Amendment Center founder John Siegenthaler.
