
The Marion Griffin-Frances Loring Award
The Honorable Rhynette Northcross Hurd
2025 Marion Griffin-Frances Loring
Award Honoree

Judge Rhynette Northcross Hurd is presiding judge for Division 5 of Shelby County Circuit Court in Memphis, Tennessee. Formerly she was a mediator, arbitrator, and special master at Ridder Hurd PLLC, a firm she co-founded with Judge Lorrie Ridder.
Prior to her work as a mediator, Judge Hurd was a transactional attorney at International Paper Company and manager of litigation and E&O claims at Sedgwick Claims Management Services. She has taught Federal Courts, Civil Procedure, and Legal Methods as an adjunct professor at Cecil C. Humphreys School of Law. Before law school, Judge Hurd was an English professor, most recently at the University of Memphis.
In addition to having served on numerous non-profit boards including the Memphis Child Advocacy Center and Leadership Memphis, Judge Hurd has served on the Tennessee Board of Law Examiners and the Board of Trustees of The University of Tennessee and Memphis College of Art. As an assistant to the Board of Law Examiners, she wrote and graded bar exam questions for over twenty years. Currently, she is vice chair of the Board of Trustees of Mount Holyoke College.
Judge Hurd holds a B.A. in English Composition from Mount Holyoke; a Master of Arts in Teaching from Harvard University Graduate School of Education; a Ph.D. in English Education from George Peabody College of Vanderbilt University; and a J.D. from the Cecil C. Humphreys School of Law at The University of Memphis. She was editor-in-chief of the 1990-91 Memphis State Law Review and judicial law clerk to the Honorable Bailey Brown, U.S. Court of Appeals, Sixth Circuit. She is an Emeritus Member of the Leo Bearman, Sr. American Inn of Court, was elected a Fellow of the Memphis Bar Foundation, and received the 2015 Chancellor Charles A. Rond Memorial Award as Outstanding Judge of the Year.
Judge Hurd has two sons, a granddaughter, and a grandson.
Lauran Stimac
2026 Marion Griffin-Frances Loring
Award Recipient

Lauran Stimac serves as Chair of Evans Petree’s litigation practice group, where she coordinates strategy and support for the firm’s litigators and interfaces with other practice groups to facilitate the provision of a broad scope of client services at the highest level.​
In Richmond, Virginia and now Memphis, Ms. Stimac has practiced as a trial attorney since 2007, largely concentrating her practice on the defense of professional liability claims against healthcare providers and lawyers. She has also represented those and other professionals, such as real estate appraisers, in licensure matters in Tennessee and Mississippi. Ms. Stimac also represents individuals and business entities in business litigation. Her practice encompasses both trial and appellate levels. She is licensed to practice in Tennessee, Mississippi, and Virginia.​
Ms. Stimac is active in the legal community, currently serving as the President of the Memphis Bar Association, a 150-year organization that supports and strengthens the Mid-South legal community of attorneys and judges. She was also appointed in 2025 by the Tennessee Supreme Court as a Board of Professional Responsibility Hearing Committee member for Disciplinary District IX. She has been recognized annually as a Mid-South Super Lawyer in the area of Professional Liability Defense since 2022.​
In addition to her law practice and professional memberships, Lauran Stimac serves as a board member of the Downtown Memphis Commission, and the Secretary and Communications Chair of the Leo Bearman, Sr. American Inn of Court. She also serves as a volunteer and a supporter of the Memphis Area Legal Services Campaign for Equal Justice, the Memphis Child Advocacy Center, Porter Leath, and the Kappa Kappa Gamma Alumnae Association of Memphis. She is a sustainer member of the Junior League of Memphis. She is a past board member of Arrow Creative, the Children’s Advocacy Centers of Tennessee, Memphis Area Legal Services, the Memphis and Shelby County Sports Authority Board, Carnival Memphis, and the Alumnae Board of St. Mary’s Episcopal School.
Past Marion Griffin-Frances Loring Award Recipients
1989 Frances Grant Loring
1990 The Honorable Martha Craig "Cissy" Daughtrey
1991 Gail O. Mathes
1992 The Honorable Julia S. Gibbons
1993 The Honorable Karen R. Williams
1994 The Honorable Bernice B. Donald
1995 Blanchard E. Tual
1996 The Honorable Penny J. White
1997 Dorothy J. Pounders
1998 Ellen B. Vergos
1999 The Honorable Janice M. Holder
2000 Veronica F. Coleman
2001 The Honorable Carol J. Chumney
2002 Linda L. Holmes
2003 The Honorable Kay Spalding Robilio
2004 Susan Clark
2005 The Honorable Rita L. Stotts
2006 Barbara Zoccola
2007 Amy J. Amundsen
2008 Ruby R. Wharton
2010 Professor Janet L. Richards
2011 The Honorable Donna M. Fields
2012 Amy P. Weirich
2013 The Honorable Paulette J. Delk
2014 Linda Warren Seely
2015 The Honorable Holly Kirby
2016 Maureen Holland
2017 Mary Wolff
2018 The Honorable Claudia Haltom
2019 Jocelyn Dan Wurzburg
2020 The Honorable Diane K. Vescovo
2023 Lucie Brackin
2024 The Honorable Camille R. McMullen
2025 The Honorable Rhynette Hurd
2026 Lauran Stimac