Distinguished Service Award

Katie Toghramadjian, 2024-25 Past Board Chair, presented the plaque renaming the Distinguished Service Award to Lance Newman. Katie made these remarks to attendees at the Annual Meeting:

I am deeply honored to be presenting this tribute in memory of Holly Newman. Holly was a devoted mother, a loving wife, a brilliant attorney, and dedicated advocate for the engineering community. Tonight, we are here to recognize and remember Holly for her tireless service to ACEC/MN and her work that has benefited all of us in this industry.

Last year I was at an ACEC/MN meeting to discuss potential nominees for the Distinguished Service Award – It is not an award that is given every year; it’s reserved for those cases where someone has gone above and beyond over a period of time, giving countless volunteer hours to support the association and the profession.

It wasn’t a surprise that Holly’s name came up. Those of us who were blessed to know her understand the positive impact she had on an individual and professional basis. It wasn’t a surprise that there were some tears in the room as those who considered Holly to be a dear friend, and even those of us who knew her in a small way, paused to share the stories of what Holly meant to them.

• Eric Heiberg, shared that although she was a direct competitor, he couldn’t help but admire her legal skill, determination and commitment to her clients.
• I reflected that when I had first started my small company how Holly went out of her way to offer helpful guidance and connect me with much needed resources.
• Dave Oxley, executive director of ACEC/MN, shared that Holly’s work stood out amongst all other volunteers throughout his 30 years at ACEC – for her selfless commitment to the profession and volunteer service.

As a construction attorney, Holly worked with the engineering and technical services community a lot. As a member of ACEC she was a frequent presenter on legal topics; and also served on the board and several committees. Most notably - and something that continues to benefit us all - Holly played a pivotal role in ACEC/MN’s successful legislative advocacy to reform indemnification laws for design professionals in Minnesota, culminating in a landmark law passed and signed in 2014.

In 2008, Holly joined a small working group to advocating for the elimination of uninsurable indemnity obligations for design professionals. She understood that indemnity clauses put design professionals in the position of taking on liability beyond what their insurance would cover, putting them at significant financial risk.

In simple terms, Holly spent six years to draft the language, introduce a bill, work with stakeholders and as an advocate, and reintroduce the bill multiple times before it was passed. What this means to every design professional here is that we are no longer faced with the significant financial risk of taking on contractual liability beyond what insurance covers.

And for these reasons, the committee opted that, instead of awarding the Distinguished Service Award in memory of Holly and her work, it would be more fitting to rename the award as the Holly J. Newman Distinguished Service Award. Her legacy will live on through her family, through her friends and colleagues, and through the countless volunteer hours that she gave to our industry.