JURIST honored at Webby awards ceremony in New York News
JURIST honored at Webby awards ceremony in New York

[JURIST] JURIST [FAQ] received the Webby People's Voice Award [poll website; Webby Awards website] for Law at the 10th Annual Webby Awards ceremony in New York Monday evening. Called the "online Oscars" by TIME magazine and presented by the International Academy of Digital Arts and Sciences [profession website], the "Webbys" are the leading international awards honoring excellence in Web design, creativity, usability and functionality. Winners [full list] were announced [JURIST report] last month.

Accepting JURIST's Webby at the Wall St. gala event which drew over 750 award winners, industry leaders, sponsors and guests, JURIST founder, publisher and editor-in-chief Bernard Hibbitts [profile] delivered the requisite five-word acceptance speech – sometimes witty and sometimes serious – for which the Webbys have become famous, declaring "Our news breaks law worldwide." Special online achievement Webbys were presented to Internet co-founder Robert Kahn, Pulitzer-Prize-winning author and New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman; Gorillaz, the platinum record selling and Grammy-performing music and animation pioneers; Chris DeWolfe, co-founder of MySpace.com, and to the the musician Prince, who wrapped up the evening with a brief live performance. The Webby awards ceremony was hosted this year by comedian Rob Corddry, from Comedy Central's The Daily Show with Jon Stewart.

To win the People's Voice Award in the Law category, JURIST drew more votes from web users than fellow-finalists Court TV (the US legal television network), FindLaw, the Nolo legal self-help service, and Justice Learning, a New York Times-National Public Radio collaboration funded by the Annenberg Foundation. Justice Learning won the Webby judges competition in Law. Over 300,000 votes were cast for the 2006 Webby People's Voice Awards, up 50% from last year.

This is the first time a law school website has won a Webby award. Headquartered at the University of Pittsburgh School of Law [law school website], JURIST is powered by a team of over 30 law student reporters, editors and web developers [staff list] led by Professor Hibbitts, who devote their time and talent to the project, working with leading legal experts from around the world to provide up-to-the minute legal news, primary source research, and expert analysis as an educational service to the public and the legal community.

JURIST thanks its readers for their support!

7:38 AM ET 06/13/06 – BBC News has posted photos from the awards ceremony.

9:40 PM ET 06/13/06 – The Rocketboom vlog has posted a video montage of the gala, and BBC News now has a video report.