This year’s Laurie Smith Camp Integrity award has been awarded to the Honorable Lindsey Miller-Lerman, an icon of Nebraska law who has had a direct or participating hand in 5,832 legal opinions over the course of her distinguished career. She served for six years on the Nebraska Court of Appeals as an inaugural judge, and then for a massive twenty-seven years as a Justice on the Nebraska Supreme Court. Before her time on the Nebraska Supreme Court, before she even joined a Nebraska Kutak-Rock law firm as a full-time mother and part-time partner, she studied under the likes of Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg and even Constance Baker Motley, the first black woman to achieve the role of Federal Judge whom Miller-Lerman clerked under. 

The award itself was named in honor of the late Honorable Laurie Smith Camp, who was the very first federal judge in the State of Nebraska who, as chance would have it, was born a woman. The lack of equality and diversity of women in the role of Justice was not lost on Miller-Lerman. In an interview with Cindy Gonzalez of the Nebraska Examiner, she noted the bathroom she shared with Other Justices, which was just a long row of urinals and one stall, as it was made for males. During her career, Miller-Lerman worked honorably to “eliminate the impediment that gender may have,” in an attempt to get to the things that matter. 

In that regard there could be no one more deserving this year to win the Laurie Smith Camp Integrity Award, presented to those who give (as per the Omaha Bar Association website,) “Outstanding contributions, above and beyond the call of duty related to: advancing diversity and inclusion, improving access to justice, improving pro-bono service, mentoring of others, advancing innovation in the legal profession, and/or serving and representing the community.” 

The fact that the Honorable Lindsey Miller-Lerman held onto pictures that were given to her of girls who dressed up on Halloween pretending to be her only hammers home that she was a wonderful representative of the community in Omaha. At an event for Miller-Lerman, one-U.S. State Representative, John Cavanaugh, proclaimed that she had “a heart of gold and a head of steel principles." Now retiring, she has plans to continue living in Omaha. Nebraska couldn’t be more blessed to have such a person continue to influence our communities, someone who never shied away from her ideals of the law being for everyone.  

Nebraska Examiner’s article “Nebraska’s First Woman Supreme Court Justice Hangs Up Robe, Mulls Next Move: ‘I’ll Be Useful’” by Cindy Gonzalez can be read here: https://nebraskaexaminer.com/2025/11/01/nebraskas-first-woman-supreme-court-justice-hangs-up-robe-mulls-next-move-ill-be-useful/