Women and the Law Division Honors Magistrate Judge Doris Pryor with 2022 Antoinette Dakin Leach Award

Each year, the IndyBar Women and the Law Division presents the Antoinette Dakin Leach Award to recognize the accomplishments of a female attorney in central Indiana. The award is named in honor of Antoinette Dakin Leach, one of the first women admitted to the Indiana Bar.

The spirit of Antoinette Dakin Leach lives on through each award winner including this year’s recipient, Judge Doris Pryor, who was recently nominated by President Joe Biden to serve on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit and currently sits on the federal bench at the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Indiana. She exemplifies the definition of a trailblazer in the legal profession, as evident by her recent nomination. If confirmed, she will be the first woman of color from Indiana to serve in this capacity.

Judge Pryor was appointed U.S. Magistrate Judge in 2018. Until Judge Pryor's appointment to the bench, she was employed as the National Security Chief for the United States Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Indiana and had served in that role since September 2014. She has been very involved with the IndyBar throughout her legal career. She currently sits on the Commission on Racial Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion in the Indianapolis Legal Community and the Bar Leader Series Steering Committee and is a lecturer for the IndyBar Review Course each year. She was the featured keynote speaker for the 2019 IndyBar Diversity Job Fair luncheon.

One of Judge Pryor's nominators, Judge Charnette Garner of the Marion Superior Court, commends Judge Pryor for nurturing relationships among her colleagues at the United States Attorney's Office. Another nominator, Andrea Ciobanu, says that Judge Pryor's "courage and collegiality are unsurpassed."

Judge Pryor will be honored at the annual Antoinette Dakin Leach Award celebration, to be held Nov.10.