BC Law Professor Emerita Ruth-Arlene W. Howe ’74 received the Massachusetts Black Lawyers Association’s top honor, the Lifetime Achievement Award, at the organization’s gala on March 16.
Howe shared the stage with classmate Walter Prince, founding partner of the Boston firm Prince Lobel Tye, who was given the Trailblazer Award.
The first African-American female faculty member to achieve tenure and the rank of full professor in the history of BC Law, Howe retired in 2009 and continues to be an asset to the BC Law community as a founder of the Journal of Law and Social Justice and advisor to the Black Law Student Association. During her distinguished academic career, she taught a variety of courses and seminars in family law, elder law, legal interviewing and counseling, and professional responsibility. She also published widely.
Prince, a litigator and eminent employment law attorney, is a former president of the MBLA, former vice president of the Massachusetts chapter of the National Conference of Black Lawyers, and former vice president of the Ford Hall Forum. He has served as an adjunct professor of law at Boston College Law School for more than two decades and is a fellow in the American College of Trial Lawyers.
Both were cited at the ceremony for their “dedication and outstanding contributions to the legal community.”