Author E. Hughes Career Achievement Award

Vickie E. Turner ’82 (JD)

Partner, Wilson Turner Kosmo LLP

Vickie Turner is a partner in the law firm of Wilson Turner Kosmo, the largest women-owned law firm in San Diego. She has been a trial lawyer defending complex litigation for 35 years. She serves on the School of Law’s Board of Visitors, is an adjunct professor and funds an annual scholarship for deserving and diverse USD law students. In 2009, she received the school’s Distinguished Alumni award.

Turner has earned national recognition defending complex product liability cases throughout California and in 12 other western states. She has been recognized as one of San Diego’s top five product liability defense attorneys by San Diego Super Lawyers and twice named the Best Lawyers’ San Diego Product Liability Litigation – Defendants Lawyer of the Year. She has been featured in Diversity & The Bar as a Leading Law Firm Rainmaker and in profiles in Diversity Journal’s® Women Worth Watching®.

Turner was also honored as Woman of the Year by the 79th California State Assembly, was recognized as a local hero by KPBS and as a Woman of Dedication by The Salvation Army for her community service. She is the co-founder of the Turner Dream Foundation and the Links to STEM Program, which prepares fourth- through eighth-grade students for science, technology, engineering and math, with an emphasis on

robotics. She also serves on the executive boards of the National Bar Association Commercial Law Section and the National Bar Institute. She is the past president of the Gilliam Bar Association and Lawyers Club.

She and her late husband are the proud parents of three sons who follow her motto of dreaming big with their eyes open.