Richard Rothschild is recognized for nearly 30 years of extraordinary public service in California serving those who cannot afford to pay for legal representation. He is recognized for his tremendous impact as a premier appellate lawyer on the over eight million low-income children, people with disabilities, immigrants and other vulnerable groups living in the state. In addition to winning high impact litigation defending or expanding the rights of low-income families and individuals, Rothschild has supported and shared his expertise with countless legal service organizations and their attorneys.
Kenneth Rose is honored for his life-time commitment to public defense work for nearly 35 years in Georgia, Mississippi, and North Carolina. Rose has spent his entire career representing low-income clients on death row, many of whom are mentally ill and intellectually disabled. He has played a key role in advocacy efforts to limit the death penalty, helping to enact one North Carolina statute barring the death penalty for persons with intellectual disabilities and another that allowed death row prisoners to present statistical disparities and other evidence to show that race played an impermissible role in their cases.