An Illinois Supreme Court justice and two attorneys will be honored during the annual meeting and dinner of the Lawyers' Assistance Program on Friday, Nov. 2, in the Empire Room at the Palmer House Hilton, Chicago.

Justice Rita B. Garman of Danville will receive the Hon. John Powers Crowley Award. Wheaton attorney Brigid A. Duffield, a LAP volunteer and former board member who serves on the ISBA Family Law Section Council, is the recipient of the Carl H. Rolewick Award.

A Special Distinguished Service Award will be presented to Joseph R. Bartylak of Princeton, retired executive director of Land of Lincoln Legal Assistance Foundation, a LAP volunteer for 27 years and recently associate director.

A Laureate of the ISBA Academy of Illinois Lawyers, Bartylak is a member of the ISBA Committee on Mental Health Law who served on the Assembly until June.

Magistrate Judge John Gorman of U.S. District Court in Peoria will be installed as LAP president, and James Faught, associate dean of the Loyola University School of Law, as vice president.

Other new officers are 22nd Circuit Judge Michael Caldwell of Woodstock, treasurer, and Sheila Murphy of Rothschild, Barry & Myers, Chicago, secretary.

Keynote speaker for the annual dinner is Christopher Kennedy Lawford, who lectures frequently on addiction, recovery and overcoming adversity. He will tell “A Story of Recovery.”

He is the author of the autobiographical work, “Symptoms of Withdrawal: A Memoir of Snapshots and Redemption” (William Morrow 2005).

Lawford is a supporter of Women in Recovery, a 12-step, live-in rehabilitation program for women in need based in Venice, Calif. He was honored in 2006 for making a difference for women who have substance abuse problems.

The keynote speaker received a law degree from Boston College in 1983, but his inner thespian has pointed him toward a career in film and television.

The acting in his genes, a legacy from his father, Peter Lawford, apparently trumped the political and legal influences of two uncles – John and Robert Kennedy. He also is an in-law of Arnold Schwartzenegger.

In the 1990s, Christopher Lawford appeared as Charlie Brent in the television soap opera, “All My Children,” opposite Susan Lucci. He appeared in the 2000 film, “Thirteen Days,” as Navy Commander William Ecker, and in “Terminator 3” with Schwartzenegger.

Lawford attended the Sundance Film Festival earlier this year to promote his motion picture, “Slipstream,” which was written and directed by Anthony Hopkins.