The State Bar of Michigan has selected Harold D. Pope and Justin C. Ravitz as recipients of this year's Champion of Justice Awards.

The State Bar will honor these two outstanding lawyers during the Wednesday luncheon of the Bar's 65th Annual Meeting at the Cobo Center in downtown Detroit on September 20.

Pope is a member of the Detroit firm of Jaffe, Raitt, Heuer & Weiss, P.C. He is also currently serving as 57th President of the National Bar Association. He has spoken out and acted on many issues affecting African Americans including the lack of diversity on the federal bench, the lack of minority law clerks hired at the U.S. Supreme Court, and the ever-increasing number of civil and human rights violations being committed against people of color around the world. The D. Augustus Straker Bar Association nominated Pope for his "extraordinary individual accomplishment and devotion to educational, civil and human rights."

Ravitz is a senior shareholder in the Southfield firm of Sommers, Schwartz, Silver & Schwartz, P.C. He is a former Recorder's Court judge who, over the years, has become a leading advocate for the civil rights movement and is a noted litigator. His career began in the late 1960's when he and his former law partner, the late Kenneth Cockrel, successfully handled some of the most celebrated civil rights trials of that era in the Detroit area. His commitment to civil rights has continued over the decades of his practice. Ravitz was nominated by Oakland County Bar Association member Patricia A. Stamler.

The State Bar awards not more than five Champion of Justice Awards each year. Recipients must be a member of the State Bar for at least 10 years, have integrity and adherence to the highest principles and traditions of the legal profession and must have an extraordinary professional accomplishment which benefits the nation, state or local community in which the lawyer or judge lives.