Patty Ferguson-Bohnee, faculty director of the Indian Legal Program at the Sandra Day O’Connor College of Law at Arizona State University, was honored by the American Bar Association with the 2020 Spirit of Excellence Award. Administered by the ABA’s Commission on Racial and Ethnic Diversity in the Profession, the Spirit of Excellence Award recognizes legal professionals who have demonstrated excellence and a commitment to racial and ethnic diversity.
Ferguson-Bohnee, who also directs the university’s Indian Legal Clinic and serves as a clinical professor of law, joined the faculty at the university in 2007. Earlier, Professor Ferguson-Bohnee clerked for Judge Betty Binns Fletcher of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals and was an associate in the Indian Law and Tribal Relations Practice Group at the Sacks Tierney law firm in Phoenix. As a Fulbright Scholar to France, she researched French colonial relations with Louisiana Indians in the 17th and 18th centuries.
Professor Ferguson-Bohnee is a member of the Pointe-au-Chien Indian tribe. She is a graduate of Stanford University and Columbia Law School.