Springfield attorney Randall A. Wolter, managing partner in Wolter, Beeman & Lynch, has been selected as the 2006 recipient of the ISBA General Practice Section Tradition of Excellence Award.

A member of the state bar association's Special Committee on Strategic Marketing for ISBA Members, he will be honored Saturday, June 17, during the Assembly meeting at The Abbey on Lake Geneva.

A 1973 graduate of the University of Illinois College of Law, Wolter received a master's degree in business administration at the University of Chicago in 1979.

During his tenure with the Continental Illinois National Bank and Trust Co. from 1976 to 1981, he served by special arrangement as executive director of the Illinois Commission for Economic Development.

In July 1981, he joined the civil litigation, corporate, and real estate law firm known then as Stine, Wolter & Lestikow. Robert E. Stine nominated him for the Tradition of Excellence Award.

In September 1997, Wolter was a founding partner in Wolter, Beeman & Lynch, a personal injury and professional malpractice firm.

“The cornerstone of Randy's success as an attorney is his belief that our job is to resolve clients' problems as amicably and efficiently as possible,” Stine wrote in his nomination letter.

“I never saw him reject a request for assistance based on the person's inability to pay legal fees,” Stine added. “If he was asked for help, and the requesting party, in his view, was entitled to relief, he simply helped.”

Active in local organizations, Wolter has been president of the Sangamon County Family Service Center, Lincolnfest Inc., and Railsplitter's Sertoma. He has served on the boards of Big Brother/Big Sister and the American Cancer Society, for which he was chair of income development.

As a board member and president of the Sangamon County Development Corp., he participated in establishment of the Panther Creek subdivision, one of the more significant real estate developments in city history, Stine said.

Wolter has served on the board of the Illinois Trial Lawyers Association for six years and is a barrister of the Lincoln Douglas Inn of Court. He has taught at Lincolnland Community College and lectured for the Illinois Institute for Continuing Legal Education.

In 1999, he became the first graduate of Northern Illinois University in Sangamon County to be named Alumnus of the Year.

Wolter's eldest daughter, Lindsay A. Wolter, is an environmental lawyer with Seyfarth Shaw in Chicago. Taught to swim by her father, she was captain of the Yale University swimming team.

“The Tradition of Excellence Award is designed to recognize an attorney who has for some substantial period of time increased respect for the practice of law, provided exemplary service for his clients, and contributed to his community through efforts outside the practice,” Stine wrote.

“Randall Wolter certainly fulfills these requirements, and it is my pleasure to nominate him.”