Gambian-born Anna Gardner (nee Grey-Johnson) has been nominated by the Law Society of Great Britain for the prestigious and highly coveted award of Solicitor of the Year.
Ms Gardner, according to a statement from the Law Society in the UK, has been short-listed for the Law Society's Excellence Awards in the category of "Solicitor of the Year 2010".
BBC Broadcaster Mishal Husain will present the awards at a prestigious black tie dinner and presentation ceremony which will take place on October 21st at Old Billingsgate, London.
The awards reward the most outstanding practitioners in the legal profession. They are designed to recognize best practice across the entire legal profession, and to celebrate excellence and outstanding achievement in areas that are central to the profession.
They highlight innovative business and quality of life practices, successful approaches to practice management, contributions through social responsibility and equality and diversity initiatives.
"I am deeply honoured to be shortlisted for this prestigious award," Ms Gardner said.
This is what some of her supporters had to say:
Ms Joyce Norcini, General Counsel, Nokia Siemens Network (formerly VP & Deputy General Counsel at Hewlett-Packard) said: "During my tenure at Hewlett-Packard, I was fortunate to work personally with Anna Gardner. Anna's real leadership was demonstrated in her implementation of the (the Middle East & Africa transformation) plan, its adoption in the region and its business."
Hongxia Liu, Executive Director, the World Justice Project, said: "Anna has been instrumental, through tireless advocacy and lobbying of her colleagues, in getting Hewlett-Packard's Legal department in EMEA and Asia Pacific to support the expansion of the Rule of Law Index to 35 new countries. The Rule of Law Index is a quantitative assessment tool designed to offer a comprehensive picture of the extent to which countries around the world adhere to the rule of law".
"It looks not only at the laws as written, but at how they are actually implemented in practice and experienced by those who are subject to them. Having the attorney's in HP's EMEA and Asia Pacific regions contribute to this exercise on a pro bono basis has added a unique perspective and enhanced the quality of the input into the tool. We hope that Anna?s contribution to strengthening the rule of law can be recognised through this award."
Dr James Muhombe, Chair of Conserve Africa, said: "Ms Gardner's contributions to our efforts to promote environmental justice in Africa have made a real difference thereby positively impacting the reputation of the legal profession amongst environmental groups, NGOs and the African public. She is truly deserving of this award."
Linda Lee, Law Society President, said: "Once again, we have seen a very high standard of entries received for the Excellence Awards. Those who have made the shortlist should be extremely proud of getting this far, as this year we received a record number of superb entries.
The Excellence Awards recognizes the innovation, quality and tenacity that is characteristic of the legal profession. We hope the shortlisted will act as an inspiration to others."
Anna is the daughter of Mr and Mrs Crispin Grey-Johnson.