|
|
|
|
 |
|
        |
 |
||
NLADA Announces 2008 Kutak-Dodds Award Honorees: Charles F. Elsesser Jr. for Civil and Eileen Hirsch for DefenderNLADA Presents 2008 Kutak-Dodds Awards at Exemplar Awards Dinner on June 11, 2008 in Washington, DC
Reserve a ticket today and join NLADA in honoring Charles Elsesser and Eileen Hirsch
Eileen Hirsch
Eileen Hirsch has been championing the rights of juveniles in Wisconsin’s criminal justice system since her career in law began. As assistant state public defender at the State of Wisconsin Office of the State Public Defender, she leads a team of attorneys who represent juvenile clients in appellate matters. After receiving her law degree from the University of Virginia Law School in 1977, she joined the Youth Policy and Law Center in Madison, Wis. and served as a staff attorney from 1978 to 1982 and was promoted to associate director in 1982. In this position, she worked in training, technical assistance and policy advocacy for children in the juvenile justice system. In 1986, she joined the Wisconsin State Public Defender and has held several positions since that time, including chief legal counsel and deputy state public defender. She was promoted to her current position as the assistant state public defender of the appellate division in 1995. In her current position she leads a staff that provides representation in all public defender staff-assigned juvenile appeal cases in the state, through which she has argued nine cases in the Wisconsin Supreme Court, with successful results in seven. In the last decade, Hirsch has had several noteworthy successes for juvenile justice before the Wisconsin Supreme Court. In 2005, she persuaded the Wisconsin Supreme Court to issue a broad ruling requiring the exclusion of evidence based on admissions in certain juvenile cases. This ruling has made it so the evidence is barred unless the entire interrogation was recorded, absent a finding of good case for the failure to record. The case, In re Jerrell C.J., 283 Wis.2d 145, 699 N.W.2d 100 (2005), has created a major departure from the procedures previously employed in Wisconsin. Her representation also persuaded the Wisconsin Supreme Court to rule in In re Cesar G. 272 Wis. 2d 22, 682 NW.29 1 (2004) that sex offender registration requirements were discretionary in juvenile matters. Before this ruling, sex offender requirements were thought to be mandatory, even for the youngest adjudicated children. Hirsch grounded her argument on the provisions of the Wisconsin Juvenile co-ed. This decision allows the juvenile court judge to stay the registration requirement in appropriate cases and when given conditions are met. Courts, applying this rule, have made balanced and sensitive decisions that will result in life-long benefits for many young people. For her outstanding dedication and commitment to indigent defense, NLADA proudly presents the 2008 Kutak-Dodds Defender Prize.
For most of the last 33 years, Charles Elsesser has tirelessly worked as an advocate for low-income people covering a wide swath of legal issues, from affordable housing to welfare. As the senior litigation attorney with Florida Legal Services, Inc., he principally engages in the representation of community organizations in complex and class action litigation in federal court involving housing and disaster-related issues, as well as naturalization and public benefits. After earning his law degree from St. Joseph’s University in Philadelphia, Pa. in 1971, Elsesser joined California Rural Legal Assistance as a staff attorney representing clients on a range of litigation issues, including government benefits, healthcare and housing. From 1974 to 1984, he served as senior counsel and directing attorney at Legal Aid Foundation of Los Angeles and in 1984, he opened a private law office and primarily dealt with civil rights litigation. From 1986 to 1989, he returned to the Legal Aid Foundation of Los Angeles as director of litigation, where he had oversight for all major litigation in the program. And, for the three years following, Elsesser worked in government as an expert on affordable housing, both on the Senate Rules Committee of the California State Senate and then for the city of Santa Monica. In 1992, he joined Legal Services of Greater Miami as senior attorney, where he worked on litigation related to affordable housing and homelessness. Since 1997, he has served as senior litigation attorney with Florida Legal Services, Inc., where he represents community organizations in complex and class action litigation in federal court involving housing and disaster-related issues, as well as naturalization and public benefits.
He has worked on a number of issues vital to the welfare of his clients during his career. He has helped people going through the trauma of hurricane recovery multiple times, including following Hurricane Andrew in 1992 and then again in 2004 when Florida received more significant hurricane damage. In 2005, he authored a disaster recovery manual for legal services practitioners and flew to the Gulf Coast to train legal services lawyers in Alabama, Mississippi and Louisiana following Hurricane Katrina. Elsesser also played a leading role in a series of successful class action challenges to Federal immigration authorities’ refusal to timely process naturalization applications, to fairly consider the applications of disabled persons and immigration authorities’ refusal to grant fee waiver requests for the poorest of the applicants. For his outstanding dedication and commitment to indigent defense, NLADA proudly presents the 2008 Kutak-Dodds Civil Prize. For information on the 2008 NLADA Exemplar Awards Dinner, please contact Deborah Dubois, Vice President of
Marketing, Communications & Development at d.dubois@nlada.org or by phone at 202-452-0620 ext. 223.
|
|||
|
|
        
|
|||||
|
© Copyright, 2004
National Legal Aid & Defender Association,
1140 Connecticut Ave. NW, Suite 900, Washington, DC 20036
(Phone) 202.452.0620 | (Fax) 202.872.1031 |
info@nlada.org
|
|
|||
