American Inns of Court: Best Special Project Award

The American Inns of Court Program Awards Committee selected the Conner Inn’s March 11, 2026 program, "Jury Deliberation with Inner-City Scholarship Fund High School Jurors," as the recipient of the Best Special Project Award.

We congratulate our members and participants on this exceptional accomplishment, which reflects the Conner Inn’s continued commitment to legal education, mentorship, professionalism, and community outreach.

In recognition of this award, a short video highlighting the winning program was shown at the Supreme Court of the United States. The Conner Inn was also recognized during the Inns of Distinction Gala held in the Great Hall of the Supreme Court of the United States on Saturday, July 25, 2026.

Conner Inn Receives Achieving Excellence Platinum Designation

The Hon. William C. Conner Inn of Court is pleased to announce that it has received the American Inns of Court Achieving Excellence Platinum Designation for the 2025–2026 Inn year.

This recognition reflects the dedication of our members and leadership in advancing professionalism, ethics, civility, mentoring, and excellence within the intellectual property legal community.

Conner Inn Receives Achieving Excellence Platinum Designation

The Hon. William C. Conner Inn of Court is pleased to announce that it has received the American Inns of Court Achieving Excellence Platinum Designation for the 2024–2025 Inn year.

This recognition reflects the dedication of our members and leadership in advancing professionalism, ethics, civility, mentoring, and excellence within the intellectual property legal community.

Linn Inn Alliance - Foundation Partnership

The Honorable William C. Conner Inn of Court participated in the Linn Inn Alliance - Foundation Partnership.

The objective of the Linn Inn Alliance and the IP Law Foundation is to bring tools and programs implemented by the Foundation to the member Inns of the Alliance to strengthen the goal of promoting diversity within the patent bar.

These programs and tools can be used to complement existing diversity efforts by individual member Inns or to establish new diversity plans.

For more information, click HERE.

Conner Inn Award with the Achieving Excellence Platinum Designation

The Hon. William C. Conner American Inn of Court has been awarded the Achieving Excellence Platinum designation for the 2019-2020 Inn year. Achieving Excellence is a tiered achievement-based program that recognizes activities in which Inns are already involved and builds on an Inn's successes. Each level recognizes an Inn's progress toward mastering effective practices in each of the five core competencies of Inn management: Administration, Communications, Program Development, Mentoring and Outreach Activities.

Our Commitment to the Legal Profession

The Conner Inn is committed to fostering a welcoming and collegial environment for members of the legal profession across all disciplines, practice areas, and sectors. The Inn encourages the exchange of diverse opinions, perspectives, ideas, and ways of thinking, and strives to promote respect, collaboration, mentorship, and meaningful engagement among all members.

COVID-19 Safe

The safety and well-being of our members is of utmost importance to the Conner Inn. As such, the Conner Inn will continue to provide valuable education, mentoring, and networking opportunities to its membership with virtual programs and events until it is safe to return to in-person meetings. The Conner Inn will continue monitoring developments and will update members accordingly. Thank you for your continued understanding as we all navigate these trying times.

Conner Inn Receives Appreciation Letter from the Inner-City Scholarship Fund

The Honorable William C. Conner Inn of Court works collaboratively with the Inner-City Scholarship Fund to host the annual high school student jury deliberation program.

The 2019 program, Dancing the Carlton in Fortnite: Can Celebrities Own Their Dance Moves?, was held on March 28, 2019. Participating Inn members Hon. Donna Praiss, Administrative Patent Judge for the Patent Trial and Appeal Board, Anthony Lo Cicero, Amster Rothstein & Ebenstein LLP, and Stuart Pollack, DLA Piper LLP, deliberated topics in Alfonso Ribeiro v. Epic Games. Students from the Inner-City Scholarship Fund played the role of the jury as they considered all the issues central to the case.

"Thank you so much for hosting an educational and dynamic courthouse program for our students. This program brings the possibilities in the criminal justice field to life for students who would not have this opportunity otherwise. Listening to the astute questions they posed for Judge Oetken and watching them deliberate, carefully considering each component of the law, is evidence of the meaningful impact this program has on them."
- Kelvin Gentles, Senior Director, Development, Inner-City Scholarship Fund

The full letter can be accessed HERE.

American Inns of Court Published Special Edition of the Bencher for the 25th Anniversary of the IP Inn’s

The Honorable William C. Conner Inn of Court was prominently featured in the special 25th Anniversary Edition of the American Inns of Court Bencher magazine.

"This special edition [of the American Inns of Court The Bencher magazine] is the result of a lot of effort on the part of the editors, feature article authors and authors of contributing articles from each of the IP-focused Inns. I would like to take this opportunity to express my appreciation to all those who made this special edition possible and who helped in sharing the stories of the successes and growth of the IP Inns over the past 25 years." - Hon. Richard Linn, United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit

The full publication can be accessed HERE.

American Inns of Court Excellence Award

On Thursday, October 5, 2017, the Hon. William C. Conner Inn of Court was awarded Gold Level status for the 2016-2017 Inn year. The Gold level status recognizes the Inn's progress toward mastering the five core competencies of Inn management: Administration, Communications, Program Development, Mentoring and Outreach Activities.

It is with great honor that the Conner Inn of Court accepts this gold distinction as a milestone in its goal to promote excellence in professionalism, ethics, civility, and legal skills for judges, lawyers, academicians, and students of law and to advance the education of the members of the Inn, the members of the bench and bar, and the public in the fields of intellectual property.