By Townhall Chicago News Staff
The Chicago-based American Bar Association on Monday announced that Barrier Breakers and the HNBA/VIA Intellectual Property Law Institute will receive its 2027 Alexander Awards for expanding pathways into the legal profession for underrepresented students.
The awards will be presented during the Titans for Change Gala at the ABA Midyear Meeting on Jan. 30, 2027, in Chicago. The announcement highlights the city’s continued role as a hub for national legal institutions and policy.
The Alexander Awards for Excellence in Pipeline Diversity recognize individuals and organizations that demonstrate leadership in supporting underrepresented students from education through law school and into legal careers, according to an ABA news release published Monday.
The awards are named after Raymond Pace Alexander, the first African American graduate of the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania who later became a judge on the Philadelphia Court of Common Pleas, and Sadie Tanner Mossell Alexander, the first African American woman to earn a Ph.D. in the United States and the first woman to receive a law degree from the University of Pennsylvania Law School.
Barrier Breakers is a national economic-mobility program that uses higher education as a pathway for first-generation, low-income and other underrepresented students from 10th grade through professional school and into careers. The organization has supported more than 7,000 students and helped unlock over $490 million in scholarship aid, with a 95 percent law school acceptance rate and a network reaching 36 states and six countries, according to the ABA release.
The HNBA/VIA Intellectual Property Law Institute was founded in 2013 through a partnership between the Hispanic National Bar Association and Microsoft. The program was created to address a diversity gap within intellectual property, technology, media and innovation law by connecting students with education, mentorship and professional networks. Over nearly 15 years, it has become one of the nation’s foremost diversity pipeline programs in intellectual property and technology law, the release said.
The Titans for Change Gala will combine the Alexander Awards with the Spirit of Excellence Award, presented by the ABA Commission on Racial and Ethnic Diversity in the Profession, and the Impacto Award, presented by the ABA Commission on Hispanic Rights and Responsibilities.
The Alexander Awards have recognized organizations and individuals expanding access to legal education for more than two decades, according to the ABA.
