Council Member John Subak Honored with ALI’s Inaugural Distinguished Service Award
ALI President Michael Traynor and award recipient John Subak
The American Law Institute’s first Distinguished Service Award was presented to John T. Subak of Boca Grande, Florida, at a dinner in New York City on October 19, 2006, in the presence of his fellow Council members and his wife and children. Mr. Subak, a member of the Institute since 1985 and of the Council since 1987, was recognized for his long and outstanding service to the Institute as an institution and his many contributions to its work.
In recommending the first recipient of an award designed to honor service to the Institute as an organization, President Michael Traynor praised Mr. Subak’s many contributions in that regard as steady and stellar: "John’s wise counsel over the years has been integral to the success of The American Law Institute, and his work on law reform and service on our Council and on numerous groups and committees would do well to serve as a model for other ALI and Council members."
Mr. Subak has played a major role in several Institute projects. As former ALI President Roswell Perkins emphasized in remarks at the dinner, he was enormously helpful in bringing the Institute’s Principles of Corporate Governance, a highly contentious project of intense interest to the corporate world, to a successful conclusion. Council member Robert Mundheim, who was instrumental in establishing the new award, lauded Mr. Subak’s "quiet diplomacy" in negotiating difficult Institute relationships. Noting Mr. Subak’s formal role as an Adviser on three ALI projects and his informal role as an adviser on all other projects as a member of the Council and of the Institute, Mr. Mundheim observed that "John’s thoughtful comments and carefully crafted language changes had earned the explicit gratitude of the Reporters and contributed materially to the quality" of the Institute’s deliberations and work product.
Mr. Subak has served on the Investment Committee since 1993 and skillfully chaired that Committee for five years. More recently he has served with distinction on the Executive Committee and the Special Committee on ALI Governance. Mr. Mundheim, the Special Committee chair, acknowledged the debt owed to Mr. Subak as the catalyst for the Committee’s creation and observed that the Committee’s recommendations "largely reflect themes that John has been articulating for many years."
In concluding his remarks about Mr. Subak at the Council dinner, Mr. Mundheim delivered the following commendation: "John cares passionately about the Institute, passionately about his colleagues at the Institute and the work of the Institute, but his judgment on substantive issues in the projects and on Institute policy has always been dispassionate. John embodies the spirit of the Institute—a passion for the work combined with a sense of balance, fairness, and integrity, the very qualities which make the ALI a significant institution." The physical representation of the new award—a 21-inch-high hand-formed glass torch with soaring blue flame—was chosen "to honor that spirit."
The Distinguished Service Award complements the Institute’s two other awards. The Henry J. Friendly Medal recognizes contributions to the law in the tradition of Judge Friendly; any person, whether or not a member of the Institute or even a lawyer, is eligible for the Medal. The John Minor Wisdom Award honors a rank-and-file member of the Institute—that is, not an officer, Council member, or project Reporter—for making substantial contributions to law reform through participation in the Institute’s work. (See article on the latest Wisdom Award on page 3.) Unlike the Friendly Medal, the newly created Distinguished Service Award is restricted to ALI members, and unlike the Wisdom Award, it may be awarded to any member, including an officer, Council member, Reporter, or other formal project participant.
The Distinguished Service Award is specifically intended to recognize members of the Institute who have, over many years, played a major role in the Institute and its projects by accepting significant burdens as an officer or committee chair and helping to keep the Institute on a steady course as the greatest private law-reform organization in the world. Like the Friendly Medal and the Wisdom Award, the Distinguished Service Award will not necessarily be bestowed annually or on any other regular basis, but will be given from time to time to particularly deserving members of the Institute as determined by the Council.
Mr. Subak accepted the first Distinguished Service Award with characteristic modesty and warmth, noting that the award was very special for two reasons: because it was bestowed not by his peers but by his "betters," and because it was bestowed by a unique and special institution. He said he regards the ALI as a family in which professional and personal relationships flourish and contribute to improving the law and thereby improving the world. He applauded the Institute for doing more than simply restating the law and encouraged it to continue to point out the direction in which law should develop, citing the successful Principles projects on corporate governance and on family dissolution.
In closing, he counseled the audience, and all lawyers, to remember, quoting the inscription on the statue of a child in London’s Inner Temple Garden (which in turn quotes Charles Lamb’s essay "The Old Benchers of the Inner Temple"), that "lawyers, I suppose, were children once."