TUSCALOOSA, Ala. -- The University of Alabama School of Law and one of the most renowned law firms in the world, Skadden Arps Meagher & Flom, have joined together to create the Morris Dees Justice Award.

The award honors UA law alum and civil rights activist Morris Dees, a 1960 graduate of the Law School. Dees is founder of the Southern Poverty Law Center in Montgomery.

Each year, this national award will recognize a lawyer who has devoted himself or herself to serving the public interest and pursuing justice, and whose work has brought about positive change in the community, state or nation.

The award will be presented at Skadden Arps in Manhattan in the fall of the next five years. The award itself is being produced by a UA art student, Jillian Crochet.

The nomination committee thus far includes Mary Bauer, director of the Immigrant Justice Project; Bryan Fair, UA professor of law; Marcia D. Greenberger, co-president of the National Women’s Law Center; Marjorie Press Lindblom, co-chair of the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law; Susan Butler Plum, founding director of the Skadden Fellowship Foundation; Tisha R. Tallman, regional counsel, Atlanta Office, Mexican American Legal Defense and Education Fund; and Vaughn C. Williams, partner of Skadden.

Robert Sheehan, executive partner of Skadden, and Ken Randall, dean of the UA Law School, serve as co-chairs of the committee; Morris Dees serves as honorary chair.

For more about the award go to http://www.morrisdeesaward.com.