Outstanding In-House Counsel of the Year Award
Established in October 2015, this award recognizes an Arizona in-house counsel that has made outstanding contributions to the in-house counsel practice and the community at large. The recipient of this award is a respected strategic and innovative leader who exemplifies the following traits: sound and trusted judgment, excellent legal and business acumen, vision, leadership, integrity and ethics.
2023 Recipient
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Kevin Schutz serves as Vice President and Senior Counsel of Savvas Learning Company, a leading publisher of curriculum materials for the K-12 school market. Kevin assumed this role upon Savvas’ divestiture from Pearson Education in 2019, after serving in similar roles at Pearson for nearly twenty years. Prior to joining Pearson, Kevin worked as an associate at Brown & Bain in Phoenix and in the health law group at Aetna in Hartford. Kevin’s long history working in the education industry makes him well-versed in the unique challenges Savvas faces with its public entity customers, such as strict bidding requirements, an increasingly complex data privacy framework, and concerns regarding the age-appropriateness of content. Kevin particularly enjoys that his role allows him to wear the hat not only of “lawyer,” but also, depending on the context, project manager, marketing specialist, financial analyst, or business developer. Outside work, Kevin was a coach for many years in the Mesa American Little League and American Youth Soccer Organization. For several decades, he has also been a member of the North American Scrabble Players Association, which uses this classic board game as a mechanism to promote literacy and build friendships through clubs and tournaments. |
Previous Recipients
The award has been presented to:
| 2016 | Nima Jacobs Kelly |
| 2017 | Michael J. O'Connor |
| 2018 | Patrick J. Duffy |
| 2019 | Nona M. Lee |
| 2020 | Lisa Bossard Funk Michael J. Minnaugh, III |
| 2021 | Mark Rogers |
| 2022 | Mona Stone |
| 2023 | Kevin P. Schutz |
State Bar Annual Awards
- Award of Appreciation
- Award of Special Merit
- Diversity and Inclusion Leadership Award
- Hon. John R. Sticht Disability Achievement Award
- James A. Walsh Outstanding Jurist Award
- Mark I. Harrison Excellence in Mentorship Award
- Member of the Year Award
- Michael C. Cudahy Criminal Justice Award
- Outstanding In-House Counsel of the Year Award
- President's Award
- Sharon A. Fullmer Legal Aid Attorney of the Year Award
- Tom Karas Criminal Justice Award