American Inns of Court Professionalism Award for the Fourth Circuit to be presented to Shale D. Stiller, Esquire

ALEXANDRIA, Va.--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- A prominent Baltimore attorney, Shale D. Stiller, Esquire, will receive the 2011 American Inns of Court Professionalism Award in June at the Fourth Circuit Judicial Conference in White Sulphur Springs, West Virginia.

Stiller is a partner in the international law firm, DLA Piper LLP. He has been actively engaged in the private practice of law for more than 50 years. He is experienced in a broad range of business, tax and estate planning matters, and has also been chief counsel in major constitutional, commercial and divorce litigation.

Stiller has tried many of the great cases in Maryland. He has recently won suits against the Islamic Republic of Iran in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia on behalf of American citizens whose family members in the U.S. Armed Forces were murdered by Hezbollah.

He has been an Adjunct Professor at the University of Maryland for 48 years. He has taught Commercial Law, Constitutional Law, Federal Jurisdiction, Federal Estate and Gift Taxation, and the Law of Nonprofit Organizations. He is general counsel to one of the 25 largest private foundations in the country. He has been an active member of the American Law Institute for over 40 years; he is a Fellow of the American College of Tax Counsel and the American College of Trust and Estate Counsel and is the only Maryland lawyer elected to both.

Stiller was appointed in 1966 by Governor Tawes to the Henderson Commission, established to examine Maryland laws relating to the estates of decedents, minors, and disabled people. The Commission ultimately simplified the administration of estates, reduced the administration of expenses, clarified the law, and eliminated parts that were archaic or no longer useful. After the Henderson Commission, he was one of the two major people involved in revising and clarifying the entire statutory law of Maryland, a forty year project. Stiller has been named one of the top 100 estate planning lawyers in the country by Town and Country magazine. He was named a Maryland Super Lawyer in 2008 and Baltimore Corporate Lawyer of the Year in 2010.

Stiller holds an LLB degree from Yale University and an MLA from Johns Hopkins University. He has been a member of the board of trustees of Johns Hopkins for more than 25 years. He furthers his civic involvement with memberships on the boards of Johns Hopkins Medicine, the University of Maryland Law School.

The American Inns of Court, headquartered in Alexandria, Virginia, fosters excellence in professionalism, ethics, civility, and legal skills. The organization’s membership includes more than 28,000 federal, state, and local judges; lawyers; law professors; and law students in more than 350 chapters nationwide and more than 85,000 alumni members. The Professionalism Awards are presented on a circuit basis nationwide. The awards are underwritten in part by Thomson Reuters. More information is available at www.innsofcourt.org.

American Inns of CourtCindy DennisAwards & Scholarships Coordinator
703-684-3590
cdennis@innsofcourt.org

Source: American Inns of Court