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2016 Parris Awards: seven students honored by Pepperdine Law community

April 7, 2016| By Alexa Brown â€”Pepperdine Law faculty, staff, and students gathered in the atrium to honor seven new recipients of the 2016 Parris Awards. Each spring, the Awards -- launched in 2015 as part of the new Parris Institute for Professional Formation -- recognize 3L students who "exhibit the highest order of the pillars of professionalism." The awards ceremony, which came at the end of Academic Advising Week on the Pepperdine Law campus, was attended by University President Andrew K. Benton and opened with remarks from Dean Deanell Tacha, who presented the Pepperdine Award personally.

2016 Parris Awards recipients


  • Kate Handy: Excellence in Professionalism

  • Mark Montgomery: Excellence in Service

  • Andrew Goldsmith: Excellence in Peacemaking

  • Geoff Olin: Excellence in Courage

  • William Kellogg: Excellence in Leadership

  • Benjamin Schuppel: Excellence in Character

  • Andrew Kasabian: Pepperdine Award


Download pictures from the Second Annual Parris Awards album on the Pepperdine Law Flickr website.

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The Parris Awards

From the Parris Institute website: "The values of any institution are usually emphasized by that which is honored, and Pepperdine Law values the greatest traditions, ideals, and aspirations of the profession.  The Parris Institute has initiated a strategic investment in first year law students with an emphasis on developing who they are as leaders as much as what they know as lawyers."

Faculty, staff, and students nominate candidates for the awards by submitting narratives that capture candidates' attributes. Ultimately, faculty and administrators vote to determine the recipients.

--Janette Blair, for Pepperdine Law Communications