Each year, the College of Law honors alumni with awards presented at the Annual Alumni Luncheon. The Distinguished Alumni Award honors professional achievements and community leadership. At the 2016 Annual Alumni Luncheon on April 28th, the College will recognize four distinguished alumni: Lew Greenblatt (’69), John Thies (’88), Julie Bauer (’85), and Tony Augustine, Jr. (’73).
Lew Greenblatt is a partner in the Corporate & Securities Group at Reed Smith LLP. For more than 35 years, he has counseled privately held businesses and investors on a wide range of matters including mergers and acquisitions, sales, financing, contract work and other commercial matters. Greenblatt works extensively with the CEOs and senior management teams of clients in industries such as distributing, manufacturing, software development and other technology, commercial real estate and insurance brokerage – both nationally and internationally. He has been recognized by Leading Lawyers Network, has served on various boards, and has been an adjunct professor at John Marshall Law School.
John Thies is a shareholder at Webber & Thies, P.C., where he concentrates his practice in the areas of business representation and general litigation. In the area of employment and labor, Thies has handled cases in numerous forums and has led labor negotiations. He successfully litigated (and was lead counsel in) the case of Mills vs. Health Care Service Corporation, 171 F.3d 450 in the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals, which established new law in the area of reverse gender discrimination. The Mills case has been cited more than 200 times by courts across the nation. He is a member of multiple bar associations, currently serves on the Illinois Supreme Court's Committee on Character and Fitness, has earned the Super Lawyers designation by Law & Politics, and has been selected for inclusion in the Leading Lawyers Network.
Julie Bauer is an experienced trial lawyer and a partner in Winston & Strawn LLP's Litigation Department. In addition, Bauer has handled a wide variety of complex commercial and class action litigation. She has also represented publishers, authors, and broadcasters in defamation, invasion of privacy, and right of publicity matters. Bauer has been named as a "Leading Lawyer in Commercial Litigation" by theLeading Lawyers Network, and as an Illinois Super Lawyer from 2005-2015, including being named one of the "Top 50 Women Lawyers" in 2008 and 2013. Bauer currently serves as a member of the Illinois Supreme Court Commission on Access to Justice Forms Committee. She has served on multiple boards, and is an adjunct professor at the University of Illinois College of Law, teaching Advanced Trial Advocacy & Professional Responsibility.
Tony Augustine is President of Prairie Management and Development in Chicago. He is also co-owner of the company that he helped establish in 1983 which owns, manages, and leases residential and commercial property. Augustine was a member of the Law Alumni Association and served on the College’s advisory board for nearly a decade. He is also a member of the University of Illinois President’s Council. In 2012, he endowed the Anthony J. Augustine, Jr., Scholarship in Law which provides financial assistance to Illinois Law students each year.