MD Bar Foundation presents 2026 awards, announces class of fellows

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OCEAN CITY — The Maryland Bar Foundation recognized its 2026 award recipients and announced its next class of fellows at its annual meeting on Thursday.

Ward B. Coe III was given the H. Vernon Eney Endowment Fund Award, which honors lawyers and legal professionals who demonstrate outstanding leadership in working to improve government and the administration of justice.

Reena Shah, executive director of the Maryland Access to Justice Commission, introduced Coe. Speaking of his pro bono work and commitment to social justice, Shah said he is “someone who not only talks the talk, but has devoted his life to walking the walk.”

Coe, who is of counsel at Gallagher in Baltimore, is the outgoing chair of the Access to Justice Commission and a former chair of the Maryland judiciary’s committee on pro bono service.

He investigated the savings and loan crisis in the 1980s, authoring a report that formed the basis for numerous prosecutions and lawsuits, according to his biography on the Gallagher site. Coe also represented the plaintiffs in a lawsuit over the treatment of children in foster care in Baltimore. That lawsuit resulted in a federal consent decree that is ongoing and has significantly improved the city’s foster system. Coe said the first plaintiff in that case is now 51, and calls him and his wife every Mother’s Day.

He also said he is representing a woman from East Africa who has a pending asylum claim. He said many of her family members — political “dissidents” in their country — have been abducted and disappeared.

“They are inspiring,” he said of the low-income clients he represents pro bono.

“You learn tremendous amounts from them,” he said, lamenting how they are “demonized by those who are powerful.”

“(They use) phrases like ‘welfare queens,’ like ‘predators,’ like ‘murderers and racists,’ ” he said. “We have to fight against their use on every front.”

The awards ceremony was sponsored by The Daily Record. The Bar Foundation is the philanthropic arm of the Maryland State Bar Association.

The Judicial Innovative Service Award went to Prince George’s County District Judge Patrice Lewis, who has presided over the county’s mental health court for nearly two decades. She highlighted the civil rights leaders who taught her when she was one of the few white students at Howard University.

“The practice of law is an honor and a privilege,” she said.

William Carl Isler II, program counsel at the Legal Services Corporation, was named the Outstanding Fellow Service Award Recipient, and Christopher Jennison, an employment and labor lawyer at the Federal Aviation Administration, won the Edward F. Shea Professionalism Award.

The 2026 class of fellows comprises: Roberto N. Allen, Senchal D. Barrolle, Dina R. Billian, Megan E. Coleman, Delisa N.A. Coleman, Renita L. Collins, Hon. Tyrone J.R. Crosby, Christopher P. Dean, Sondra M. Douglas, Kirsten Getty Downs, Hon. Otis W. Freeman, Sara E. Furlow, Ilene B. Glickman, Shawn A. Goldfaden, Emily R. Greene, Paul J. Havenstein, Victoria L. Heyliger, Eleanor A. Hunt, Lucelia R. Justiniano, Kurt D. Karsten, Hon. Lili Khozeimeh, Joyce R. King, Sara Louise Alpert Lawson, Keith A. Lotridge, Cylia E. Lowe-Smith, Michael E. Lyons, Roberto C. Martinez, Christian W. Mash, Lynndolyn T. Mitchell, Danielle Moore, Edward W. Neufville III, Hon. Noelle W. Newman, Angela C. Nwadiogbu, G. Emeka Onwezi, Jonathan E. Pasterick, Isabelle R. Raquin, Valda G. Ricks, Kimberly K.P. Rothwell, Jeffrey J. Sadri, Andrew L. Schwartz, Chasity N. Simpson, Kevonne Small, Nefretete A. Smith, Joyce E. Smithey, William F. Steinwedel, Sakinah L. Tillman, Deborah Warner-Dennis, Christina A. Wilkes, and Hon. Maya N. Zegarra.