CHEYENNE ATTORNEY RECOGNIZED WITH WYOMING STATE BAR SERVICE AWARD

CHEYENNE – The Wyoming State Bar is pleased to announce that Walter F. Eggers, an attorney from Cheyenne, is the recipient of the Bar’s sixth annual John M. Burman Extraordinary Service Award. The award was presented during an awards luncheon at the Wyoming State Bar’s Annual Meeting & Judicial Conference hosted in Cheyenne last week.

The John M. Burman Extraordinary Service Award is given in memory of Professor Burman, who died in February 2019, and who is remembered as a recognized expert in the field of legal and judicial ethics, codes of conduct for lawyers and judges, and professional responsibility. Burman was a prolific writer in these areas of the law, as well as in the law of children and families, the child welfare system, and the juvenile justice system.

The award was presented to Eggers by Wyoming Supreme Court Chief Justice Kate Fox who recognized his many years of exemplary service to the Bar and his clients.

Eggers is an active member of the Access to Justice Commission and has been involved in the Commission’s work since being appointed by the Supreme Court in 2008. He chairs the Commission’s Funding Working Group, where he has helped coordinate campaigns to meet with Wyoming’s congressional delegation in Washington D.C. to ensure continued federal funding for civil legal aid and helped coordinate remote meetings with our congressional delegation during the pandemic. He worked with the Commission’s Law Improvement Working Group, helping to draft and support legislation to remove barriers to the courts. He was involved in lengthy strategic planning efforts undertaken by the Commission’s Strategy Working Group in 2019. In 2022-2023, Eggers chaired the ATJ 2.0 Court Navigator Subcommittee, which supported the Wyoming Judicial Council’s efforts to establish a Court Navigator Program, which is designed to put lawyers and trained nonlawyers in the courthouse to provide guidance for self-represented litigants to help navigate the court system.

Over and above his service on various boards, Eggers has represented clients through the Volunteer Lawyers Program, volunteered at Equal Justice Wyoming’s evening legal clinics and other pro bono events, and has helped recruit other attorneys from his former firm, Holland & Hart, to participate and provide pro bono service.

Until his recent retirement, Eggers was a partner at Holland & Hart LLP where he served as administrative partner of the Cheyenne office and leader of the firm’s Environmental and Natural Resources Practice Group.

Criteria for the John M. Burman Extraordinary Service Aware are extensive. Recipients must demonstrate a history of extraordinary service to Wyoming lawyers, the Wyoming State Bar, the University of Wyoming College of Law, the Wyoming judiciary, the citizens of Wyoming and the international community. Like Professor Burman, they must be recognized by their peers as exemplifying legal ethics and professional responsibility.

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