ALEXANDRIA, Va.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Peter G. Eikenberry has been selected to receive the prestigious 2016 American Inns of Court Professionalism Award for the Second Circuit. The award will be presented at a special ceremony in New York by Chief Judge Robert A. Katzmann.

Eikenberry is a litigator in private practice specializing in complex commercial litigation in the New York state and federal courts, including employment, art law, contracts, fraud, international, securities, and bankruptcy adversary disputes. Through his work on the New York City Bar Association Committee to Encourage Judicial Service, the diversity of the judiciary in New York has increased greatly.

A volunteer civil rights lawyer in Mississippi in July 1966 with the Lawyers Committee for Civil Rights under Law, Eikenberry’s commitment to advancing civil rights continues unabated. He has led a human rights mission to Northern Ireland, served as volunteer counsel at the Federal Detention Center in Dilley, Texas, the Children’s Storefront in Harlem, and was general counsel of Bedford Stuyvesant D & S Corporation. He is the convener and steering committee member of the New York Conference on Immigration Representation.

Eikenberry served the Federal Bar Council as vice president and in several other capacities. He is a Fellow of the New York Bar Foundation and is a member of the Second Circuit Court Committee on Civic Education. Eikenberry earned his undergraduate and law degrees from The Ohio State University, where he was Note Editor of the Law Journal and is a current member of its National Council.

The American Inns of Court Professionalism Awards are awarded in participating federal circuits, to a lawyer or judge whose life and practice display sterling character, unquestioned integrity, and dedication to the highest standards of the legal profession and the rule of law. The awards are underwritten in part by Thomson Reuters.

The American Inns of Court, headquartered in Alexandria, Virginia, fosters excellence in professionalism, ethics, civility, and legal skills. The organization’s membership includes more than 30,000 federal, state, and local judges; lawyers; law professors; and law students in more than 360 chapters nationwide and more than 100,000 alumni members. More information is available at www.innsofcourt.org.