Education Law Section Honors Ziko
Article Date: Friday, May 04, 2007
Written By: Russell Rawlings
Thomas J. Ziko was honored Friday, May 4, as the 2007 recipient of the Distinguished Service Award presented by the Education Law Section of the North Carolina Bar Association.
Tom Ziko, right, accepts Distinguished Service Award from Jen Palancia Shipp and Ed Speas. |
The award was presented during the section’s annual meeting at the N.C. Bar Center in Cary.
Ziko serves as special deputy attorney general in the Education Section of the N.C. Attorney General’s office, where he has worked for the past 27 years. Former Chief Deputy Attorney General Eddie Speas, who nominated his longtime colleague for the award, considers the recruitment of Ziko one of the best decisions he ever made.
As the special deputy in charge of the Education Section, Ziko provides legal services for the consolidated University of North Carolina and its 16 constituent institutions, not to mention the N.C. School of Science and Math, the State Board of Education and the State Board of Community Colleges.
“Tom’s analytical prowess and tireless commitment to the law and his clients have been of immense value over those 27 years to those public officials responsible for the state’s elementary and secondary school system, community college system and university system,” Speas stated.
“The high standard Tom has set for his own work has made him a wonderful role model and teacher for a whole generation of lawyers in the Attorney General’s office.”
Speas and Education Law Section Chair Jen Palancia Shipp participated in the presentation of the award.
A native of Rumford, Maine, Ziko received his bachelor’s degree from Yale University in 1975 and graduated from the Duke University School of Law in 1978. He and his wife, Dr. Barbara C. Ziko, have a daughter, Suzanna.
Following law school, Ziko was engaged in private practice in Durham before going to work for the Office of the N.C. Attorney General as an associate attorney general in the Habeas Corpus Section. There he represented the State of North Carolina in more than 150 federal habeas corpus proceedings.
In 1980, Speas was successful in recruiting Ziko over to the Education Section where he has since served, initially as an assistant attorney general and since 1990 as its special deputy attorney general.
Ziko has been admitted to practice in a total of nine courts, including the U.S. Supreme Court, the Fourth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals and the U.S. District Courts for North Carolina’s Eastern, Western and Middle districts.