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Retired U.S. District Court Judge William L. “Bill” Osteen has been selected as the 31st recipient of the Judge John J. Parker Memorial Award. Presentation is scheduled during the General Session of the 2008 NCBA Annual Meeting in Atlantic Beach on Saturday, June 21.

The award was established in 1959 by the North Carolina Bar Association as “the highest honor of this association bestowed in recognition of conspicuous service to the cause of jurisprudence in North Carolina.” Underscoring the significance of the award is the fact that recipients are chosen as merited, not annually.

The award recognizes “conspicuous service” by members of the bar to the cause of jurisprudence in North Carolina.

Judge Osteen was appointed to the U.S. District Court in 1991. A former NCBA vice president, Osteen assumed senior status in 2006 and was succeeded last year on the Middle District bench by his son, Judge William L. Osteen Jr.

A Greensboro native and longtime resident, Osteen is a 1953 graduate of Guilford College and 1956 graduate of the University of North Carolina School of Law. He began his law practice in North Wilkesboro in 1956 but soon returned to Greensboro as a solo practitioner in 1958.

He joined in the forming of Booth & Osteen in 1959 and remained a partner in the practice until 1969, at which time he was appointed U.S. Attorney for the Middle District. He served in that capacity until 1974, then practiced in partnership with Osteen, Adams & Osteen prior to serving on the bench.

Osteen served in the General Assembly from 1961-65 and chaired the Guilford County Economic Opportunity Council in 1963. He was president of the Greensboro Bar Association in 1989-90 and received its Distinguished Service Award in 2004. Osteen also served as president of the 18th Judicial District Bar in 1985.

A Fellow of the American College of Trial Lawyers and past member of the Federal Bar Association, Osteen is a permanent member of the Fourth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals Judicial Conference. He served a member of the State Bar Council from Guilford County from 1989-91.

“Judge Osteen has contributed significantly to the legal profession and has provided exemplary service in both the public and private sector for over 51 years in the state of North Carolina,” writes Chief Judge Louise Flanagan of the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of N.C.

“Judge Osteen’s influence not only on members of the bar but on members of the federal judiciary is profound. Through his service on the Judicial Conference’s Committee on Codes of Conduct, and the time Judge Osteen personally took for so many years (and still takes) to answer judges’ questions bearing on conduct, he has greatly enhanced the strength of the judiciary.”