Congratulations to the University of South Carolina Joseph F. Rice School of Law’s Lincoln-Douglas Society for their national recognition by the ABA’s Standing Committee on Professionalism. The committee selected the Lincoln-Douglas Society for the 2025 E. Smythe Gambrell Professionalism Award for “implementing an innovative and effective program well worthy of emulation throughout the nation.”
The Lincoln-Douglas Society was established in 2023 by Cameron Cox and Carter Balderson, two recent law school graduates. It strives to foster debate in higher education and to encourage the discussion of important and controversial issues in a civil and productive manner.
To achieve these goals, the Lincoln-Douglas Society hosts debates featuring legal scholars, professors, practitioners, and law students. Additionally, they serve as a platform for various student-run groups at the school, allowing representatives of their organizations to debate their competing perspectives.
The E. Smythe Gambrell Professionalism Awards, administered by the ABA Standing Committee on Professionalism, are supported by the E. Smythe Gambrell Fund for Professionalism. It recognizes the nation’s exemplary, innovative, and ongoing professionalism programs established by law schools, bar associations, courts, and other not-for-profit legal organizations that help maintain the highest principles of integrity and dedication to the legal profession and the public.
In his nomination of the Lincoln-Douglas Society, Dean William Hubbard stated, “I believe this award will be an inspiration for future generations of students to make a positive difference while in law school and after graduation. This award also establishes an enduring standard at the law school for civil debate and respectful discussion of hard issues. While controversial issues have divided many schools, the Lincoln-Douglas Society has brought our community closer.”
Cameron Cox and Carter Balderson, representing the Lincoln-Douglas Society, will receive this award at the ABA 2025 Annual Meeting in Toronto on Friday, August 8, 2025.