The Sangamon County Bar Association will not necessarily bestow a Harlington Wood Jr. Legal Pioneer Award on a distinguished local attorney at each annual dinner, but a July 29 deadline has been set for 2006 nominations.

The award is named in honor of the retired federal judge who was its inaugural recipient last year. It recognizes his high standards of professional conduct, competence, leadership and integrity.

When the bar selects the next Wood honoree, he or she will be the second name on a new plaque that hangs in the sixth-floor lawyers conference room of the county complex in Springfield. Designed by a Montana sculptor, the ornate plaque is in the shape of Sangamon County.

Judge Wood, who retired Dec. 31, 2003, and now lives in a Petersburg convalescent home, served on both the U.S. District Court and the Court of Appeals. Also a former U.S. attorney, he was director of the U.S. Attorneys Executive Office at the Department of Justice.

He is the son of former Sangamon County judge Harlington Wood, who was president of the Sangamon County Bar in 1922.

For information about submitting a nomination for the Wood Award, call SCBA President Daniel E. Kepner at (217) 546-0218.