See Photo Gallery of the Witkin Award Dinner
Marjorie Cohn Receives 2008 Educator Award
"Thomas Jefferson said dissent is the highest form of patriotism and that is why I spend every waking moment trying to uphold the rule of law and teaching students to think critically," noted TJSL Professor Marjorie Cohn upon accepting the 2008 Bernard E. Witkin, Esq., Award for Distinguished Service as an Educator presented by the Law Library Justice Foundation (LLJF) on March 6, 2008.
Members of Professor Cohn's family, including her dad, 
, and husband, attorney Jerry Wallingford, as well as several TJSL colleagues, watched as she was recognized at the LLJF awards dinner held this year at the historic El Cortez hotel in downtown San Diego. Among the several people to whom she expressed appreciation was her fraternal grandmother, who fled from Czarist Russia at the age of 19 and whose blood Professor Cohn proudly says is running through her veins.
Since 1995, the LLJF has presented the Bernard E. Witkin, Esq., Award annually to honor members of the San Diego legal community for civic leadership and excellence in teaching, practice, enactment or adjudication of the law. One of the goals of the LLJF is to provide books and materials for law practitioners through its Witkin Fund and the annual Witkin Award Dinner is the primary fund raiser for that fund.
Professor Cohn, who has authored numerous scholarly articles and two books, told the audience that books have been the center of her life since she was a kid. "In fact, my mother used to scold me for reading too much," she quipped.
Other 2008 Witkin honorees recognized for distinguished service as a Community Leader, Attorney, and Judge, respectively, included: Carol Lam, former U.S. Attorney for the South District of California; attorney Herbert J. Solomon of Solomon Ward Seidenwurm & Smith; and the Honorable David M. Gill of the San Diego Superior Court.
Bernard E. Witkin is considered one of California's most well-respected legal scholars. During his career of almost 70 years, he served as Supreme Court clerk and Reporter of Decisions, and as a tireless writer, lecturer and teacher to experienced judges and fledgling attorneys. Witkin also was an advocate for legal reform and his impact on California law was significant. His treatises have been cited by the California Supreme Court and Courts of Appeal more than 20,000 times. One of the goals of the LLJF is to provide books and materials for law practitioners through the Witkin Fund and the annual Witkin Award Dinner is the primary fund raiser for that fund.
Following her acceptance speech, Professor Cohn was greeted with a big hug from retired San Diego Superior Court Judge Norbert Ehrenfreund