In his spare time, Belleville attorney George R. Ripplinger Jr. practices personal injury and malpractice law as a partner in Ripplinger & Zimmer.

But what he will be honored for by the Fellows of the Illinois Bar Foundation next month is an astounding aggregation of professional activities and contributions to delivery of legal services in the state.

Ripplinger will receive the Fellows Award for Distinguished Service to Law and Society during a reception at 8 a.m. Friday, Dec. 7, at the Sheraton Chicago Hotel.

He is, of course, a Diamond Fellow and Charter Patron of the Foundation, and his service on its board included being treasurer and chair of the bylaws committee. He also is a Life Fellow of the American Bar Association and a sustaining member of the American Association for Justice.

In his southwestern Illinois bailiwick, Ripplinger was a member of the Land of Lincoln Legal Assistance Foundation board from 1982 to 1988, with one year as vice chair. He served on the board of the Lawyers Trust Fund of Illinois from 1988 to 1994.

A board member of the Illinois Technology Center for Law and Public Interest from 2001 to 2004, he helped incorporate it as Illinois Legal Aid Online in 2005 and is now its board president.

He served on the joint ISBA/CBA Committee on Statewide Legal Needs Assessment, and chaired the subsequent Special Committee on Implementation of the Illinois Legal Needs Study.

Active in the Illinois State Bar Association since graduation in 1970 from the University of Illinois College of Law, Ripplinger served on the Assembly from 1978 to 1996 and was a member of the Board of Governors from 1981 to 1983 and from 1987 to 1994.

Among the many section councils and committees he served on are Individual Rights and Responsibilities, Alternative Dispute Resolution, Civil Practice and Procedure, Membership and Bar Activities, Legislation, Professional Conduct, and Judicial Evaluations.

Ripplinger is vice chair of the Committee on Legal Education, Admission and Competence, and a member of the Illinois Supreme Court Minimum Continuing Legal Education Board.

A former member of the American Bar Association House of Delegates, he is a past chair of the Section of General Practice, Solo and Small Firm, vice chair of the Senior Lawyers Division membership committee, and a member of the Center for Professional Responsibility.

He was appointed recently as small firm liaison to the ABA Committee on Ethics and Professional Responsibility.

In addition to Ripplinger, recent recipients of the Fellows Distinguished Service Award include Justice Thomas L. Kilbride, R. Michael Henderson, Leonard F. Amari and Cheryl I. Niro.

Thomas P. Sullivan, a partner in Jenner & Block, will be inducted as an Honorary Fellow of the Illinois Bar Foundation during the Dec. 7 reception.

The rare recognition has been bestowed only four times during the past 10 years: Judge William D. Stiehl (1997), Joel Daly (1999), Abner Mikva (2004) and Terrence Hake (2006).

Inducted in 2004 as a Laureate of the ISBA Academy of Illinois, Sullivan served on the ISBA Board of Governors in 1961-62 and from 1968 to 1972. He has chaired the Civil Practice and Procedure Section Council and served on the Criminal Law Section Council.

U.S. attorney for the Northern District from 1977 to 1981, Sullivan has served on the Illinois Supreme Court Rules Committee and twice on the Committee on Federal Criminal Jury Instructions of the Seventh Circuit.

He received a Justice John Paul Stevens Award from the Chicago Bar Association in 2000.