For Immediate Release

	April 30, 2008 28TH ANNUAL MID-YEAR CONFERENCE AND GERTRUDE E. RUSH AWARDS DINNER AT THE SHERATON CHICAGO HOTEL AND TOWERS WAS A RESOUONDING SUCCESS CHICAGO, Illinois - The National Bar Association ("NBA") held its 28th Annual Mid-Year Conference from April 16 to April 20, 2008 at the Sheraton Chicago Hotel & Towers located at 301 East North Water Street, Chicago, Illinois 60611. On Thursday, April 17, 2008, the NBA honored prominent Chicago lawyer Cheryl Blackwell Bryson and Honorable Glenn T. Johnson (Ret.), with the Heman Sweatt Awards. Under the leadership of its 39th President, Arnette R. Hubbard, the NBA designated its Mid-Year Conference Dinner as the Gertrude E. Rush Dinner in honor of the only female co-founder of the NBA. The 2008 Gertrude E. Rush Award honorees were: Lerone Bennett, Jr., Executive Editor Emeritus of Ebony magazine, Hon. William Cousins, Jr. (Ret.), Hon. Emil Jones, Jr., Illinois Senate President, Linda Johnson Rice, President and CEO of Johnson Publications, Inc., and the Hon. Ann Claire Williams, United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit. The prestigious Gertrude E. Rush Awards were presented at the black-tie dinner on the evening of Friday, April 18, 2008. The NBA's Mid-Year conference was this year's largest gathering of lawyers of color in the Midwest. The conference included five, two-hour comprehensive continuing legal education seminars and social events that provided numerous opportunities to network with attorneys of color from across the country. Conference attendees enjoyed an Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater show on Thursday, April 17, 2008. Seminar topics provided education on the multi-jurisdictional practice of law and electronic discovery. In addition, NBA Diversity Director William Bennett, moderated a panel on the topic of effective corporate board service and featured John W. Rogers, Jr. of Ariel Investments LLC. The NBA held a Diversity Dialogue program convened by NBA President Vanita Banks and featuring Michele Coleman Mayes, Vice President and General Counsel of The Allstate Corporation. The successful conference culminated with a Town Hall Meeting on the sub-prime lending crisis. ABOUT THE NATIONAL BAR ASSOCIATION Founded in 1925, the National Bar Association is the oldest and largest national association of African-American lawyers and judges in America. The objectives of the NBA "…shall be to advance the science of jurisprudence; improve the administration of justice; preserve the independence of the judiciary and to uphold the honor and integrity of the legal profession; to promote professional and social intercourse among the members of the American and the international bars; to promote legislation that will improve the economic condition of all American citizens, regardless of race, sex or creed in their efforts to secure a free and untrammeled use of the franchise guaranteed by the Constitution of the United States; and to protect the civil and political rights of the citizens and residents of the United States." The NBA is the voice of over 50,000 African American lawyers, judges, legal scholars and law students.