HARRISBURG (March 26, 2010) - The Pennsylvania Bar Association Conference of County Bar Leaders (CCBL) recently honored Susan Kenny, executive director of the Monroe County Bar Association, with its 13th annual Arthur J. Birdsall Award. The award was presented during the group's annual conference held in Lancaster.

The Birdsall Award is presented to a county bar executive who demonstrates professional excellence, who is committed to the success of his or her bar association and who significantly enhances the stature of his or her bar association. It is named in honor of Arthur J. Birdsall, the Pennsylvania Bar Association's county bar services director who retired in 2006 after nearly 40 years of support to local bar associations. Kenny has served as executive director of the Monroe County Bar Association for 17 years. Kenny oversaw the purchase and renovation of the Monroe County Bar Center. In 1996, the bar association purchased a Victorian home in the borough of Stroudsburg. With the support of her executive board, Kenny toured other bar association buildings. Through her involvement in the Pennsylvania Association of Bar Executives (PABE), she gathered information regarding available funding from the Pennsylvania Bar Trust Fund to help further the renovations. The Monroe County Bar Center opened two years later. Kenny recently prepared a member survey of bar activities, part of her ongoing efforts to keep up with the substantial growth of the association's membership and to seek out new and interesting ways to make sure the association remains an integral part of the legal community.

The Conference of County Bar Leaders, whose membership includes leaders from county bar associations throughout the state and from the Pennsylvania Bar Association, organizes a yearly educational conference focusing on the exchange of innovative bar association projects and ideas and on the development of mutually-beneficial relationships among bar leaders that improve the legal profession.

Founded in 1895, the Pennsylvania Bar Association strives to promote justice, professional excellence and respect for the law; improve public understanding of the legal system; facilitate access to legal services; and serve the 29,000 lawyers who are members of the association.