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Wade H. McCree, Jr. Luncheon for Social Justice
February 11 @ 12:00 pm
At this luncheon we will present the 2026 Wade H. McCree, Jr. Award for Social Justice to the Hon. Victoria Roberts (ret). We will also recognize all of those attorneys who put justice first and helped with the pro bono effort during 2025!
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Award Winner: Hon. Victoria Roberts (ret.)
Victoria Ann Roberts, a retired judge for the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan has joined JAMS, the largest private provider of alternative dispute resolution (ADR) services worldwide.
For more than two decades, Roberts served on the bench, where she worked on new initiatives in the federal courts and her community. She also handled several high-profile cases, including serving as a mediator in the city of Detroit bankruptcy case in 2013. From 2010 to 2012, she co-chaired a committee that examined ways to improve the racial makeup of federal juries. When the COVID-19 pandemic shut down court proceedings in 2020, she was a key advocate in moving the court to virtual proceedings. Based in the Detroit Resolution Center, Roberts will serve as an arbitrator, mediator, court-appointed neutral, and neutral evaluator. She will handle business/commercial, civil rights, class action/mass tort, employment, personal injury, product liability, securities, federal law, and bankruptcy cases. She is available to conduct sessions in person, as well as virtually, for clients across the country.
“Judge Roberts is a legal trailblazer, leader and champion for diversity and equality. She has decades of experience handling cases across an array of practice areas and is incredibly adept at resolving complex, high stakes matters,” says Chris Poole, CEO of JAMS.
Roberts earned her undergraduate degree from the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor and her law degree from Northeastern University School of Law.
Wade H. McCree Jr. Award
The Wade H. McCree, Jr. Award for the Advancement of Social Justice honors individuals or organizations who have made significant contributions to the advancement of social justice. These contributions may include advancing social justice in areas involving poverty, promoting economic or educational opportunity, or fighting discrimination involving race, gender, ethnicity, national origin, religion, or economic status. The recipient may be selected from any field of endeavor including law, social service, community organization, volunteer activities, journalism, academics or the like. Wade Hampton McCree, Jr. was born in Des Moines, Iowa. He received his Bachelor of Arts degree at Fisk University and his law degree at Harvard Law School, where he finished twelfth in his class. He began his legal career at the Detroit firm of Bledsoe and Taylor in 1948. In 1952, he was appointed by Governor G. Mennen Williams to the Workmen’s Compensation Commission, where he served until 1954, when Governor Williams appointed him to the Wayne County Circuit Court. Judge McCree was then appointed by President John F. Kennedy to the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan in 1961, and by President Lyndon B. Johnson to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit in 1966. Judge McCree resigned from the Sixth Circuit in March 1977 to accept appointment by President Jimmy Carter as Solicitor General of the United States. Wade McCree served as Solicitor General until June 1981, when he was appointed the Lewis M. Simes Professor of Law at the University of Michigan, where he taught until his death. While a member of the University of Michigan Law School faculty, Professor McCree was appointed by the United States Supreme Court to hear three cases as a Special Master. Judge McCree cared deeply about education. A founder of the Higher Education Opportunities Committee at Wayne State University and a founding trustee of Friends School in Detroit, he was a Trustee at Fisk University and a member of the Visiting School Committees of Harvard Law School and Mercer University Law School. He also served as an Overseer of Harvard College and the University of Pennsylvania Law School and on the Visiting Committees of the Law Schools at Wayne State University, the University of Chicago, Case Western Reserve University and the University of Miami. Judge McCree’s service to the legal profession and the community included active membership on more than 50 committees, councils and boards. He also was a Life Member of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People and served on the Board of the Detroit Round Table of the National Conference of Christians and Jews, as well as on the boards of numerous charitable and cultural organizations. The Chapter’s McCree Award for the Advancement of Social Justice is nationally acknowledged as one of the most prestigious awards in recognition of contribution to the community. Past Recipients of the Wade Hampton McCree Jr. Award for the Advancement of Social Justice:
Given by FBA EDMI
1990 George W. Crockett & Dennis W. Archer
1991 Ernest Goodman
1992 Mildred Jeffrey
1995 Damon J. Keith
1996 George W. Romney
1997 Fr. William Cunningham
1998 William G. Milliken
1999 Maryann Mahaffey
2001 Alternatives for Girls
2002 Saul A. Green
2003 Eleanor M. Josaitis
2004 Friends School of Detroit
2005 Eugene Driker
2006 Freedom House
2007 Father Norman P. Thomas
2008 Jack Kresnak
2009 The “Neal Legal Team”
2010 Mary Sue Coleman
2011 Kathleen Straus
2012 Martin I. Reisig
2013 Florise Neville-Ewell & PBJ Outreach
2014 Dr. Daniel H. Krichbaum
2015 John Van Camp
2016 Former United States Senator Carl Levin 2
2017 Mark Davidoff
2018 Faith Fowler
2019 Kary L. Moss
2020 Hon. Avern Cohn
2021 Legal Aid Defender Association, Inc.
2022 Erica Peresman
2023 Amanda Alexander
2024 Stephani LaBelle
Given by EDMIBAR
2025 Barbara Patek