Ricardo Woods, a partner with Burr & Forman's office in Mobile, Alabama, was honored in part for guiding the Mobile city attorney and Mayor Sandy Stimpson to "pass a historic redistricting map that gave Mobile—for the first time—four majority-Black council districts," according to his nominator essay.

"That result took seven months of debate and went above and beyond what the Voting Rights Act required, making four of Mobile's seven voting districts 'majority-minority' districts to finally reflect the city's makeup," the essay said. "It required navigating conflicting interests of multiple parties, including the mayor, seven city councilors, citizen advocacy groups and stakeholders, to ensure they were 'as close to happy' as possible. Getting it wrong meant ending up in litigation—which is precisely what Woods is retained to avoid and precisely what the Southern Poverty Law Center had already threatened."