WASHINGTON, DC, October 27, 2003 — The National Legal Aid & Defender Association (NLADA) is pleased to announce this year's winners of the prestigious Reginald Heber Smith Award (the “Reggie”) are Charles Gessler, special circumstance coordinator/consultant for the Los Angeles County Public Defender's Office, and Hebert Semmel, director of the Federal Rights Program, for the National Senior Citizens Law Center in Los Angeles. Gessler and Semmel will be honored during the NLADA 2003 Annual Conference Awards Dinner on Friday, November 14, at the Westin Seattle in Washington state.

The "Reggie" celebrates the outstanding achievements and dedicated services of an attorney for contributions made while employed by an organization providing civil legal services or public defense services. These two gentlemen have distinguished themselves throughout their respective careers by zealously pursuing justice for their clients. Each has used his knowledge and skill to improve the lives of the disenfranchised and to make social policies and justice fair and accessible to all.

Known as "the dean of the capital case" in California, Charles Gessler has dedicated his professional career to legal advocacy on behalf of people accused of crimes but who could not afford to hire a lawyer to defend them. He has been with the Los Angeles County Public Defender's Office for 38 years. While officially retired, he is still very much a part of the team there, currently assisting the Public Defender capital case coordinator. In this capacity, he is involved in the assignment of capital cases to other deputy public defenders, provides advice on cases and strategy, and mentors new and veteran attorneys handling capital cases.

A former prosecutor, Gessler was drawn to criminal defense work because of his belief that the defense attorney is the true bulwark of freedom of every citizen. He has an extraordinarily successful track record. Of the more than 60 murder cases he has tried, 15 were capital cases, and none of his clients is on death row. His clients have included some high-profile defendants –Vaughn C. Greenwood, the so-called "Skid Row Slasher", Sam Nam Chinh, charged in a highly publicized 1984 Chinatown murder-robbery case and convicted of killing a police officer; and Lyle Menendez in his second trial for the shotgun killing of his parents. He is a champion of the belief that public defenders represent whole people, not just cases.

Michael Judge, chief public defender in the Los Angeles County Public Defender's Office, said of Gessler: "Charlie's entire career has been beyond the call of duty. He has never accepted an adequate defense as a standard for himself or for the system. Every effort he has made, every action he has taken in his 38-year career has been dedicated to providing the best defense for indigent clients - not only his own clients, but all indigent clients. ...His contribution literally has saved lives, raised spirits and inspired a new generation of lawyers. He remains the dean of capital case lawyers in California."

In addition to his practical work as a public defender, Gessler is a regular lecturer at seminars and author of legal articles for various seminars/conference and magazines. He has lectured to local and statewide association on such topics as "Ten Precepts of Successful Homicide Preparation," "Ethics in Criminal Cases," "Final Arguments in Homicide Trials," "Special Circumstances and Death Penalty Phase Investigation," and "What It Is To Be A Public Defender." Gessler also participates in the state legislative process to advocate for the criminal defense field, and he seizes every opportunity to speak to civic groups on the subject of constitutional rights and safeguards for those charged with criminal offenses.

Herb Semmel has dedicated his entire legal career to the pursuit of social justice and adherence to the principle. Since his graduation from Harvard Law School in 1953, Semmel has selflessly given his knowledge and expertise to advocate for those less fortunate and work tirelessly to level the field of justice.

Semmel personifies the very meaning and purpose of the "Reggie" award. He is not only a practitioner of the law, but a lifetime scholar who has generously mentored other upcoming lawyers to ensure justice is served to low-income Americans.

Gerald McIntyre, directing attorney of the National Senior Citizen Law Center (NSCLC), said of Semmel, "Herb represents the very best the equal justice community and legal profession has to offer. During his varied legal career, he has excelled as a volunteer civil rights lawyer in Mississippi in 1965, a labor lawyer representing workers, as a law professor who was among the pioneers in teaching Health Law and Social Welfare Law and integrating poverty law into the general curriculum, as the founder and first board chair of a legal services program in Illinois, as a health and civil rights lawyer, as executive director of the Center for Law and Social Policy, as a disability rights lawyer who filed the first complaint under the Americans with Disabilities Act, as Litigation Director at New York Lawyers for the Public Interest, and as an advocate for low-income elders at the National Senior Citizens Law Center (NSCLC), where he is now Director of the NSCLC Federal Rights Project.”

Semmel has worked for the last 10 years at NSCLC in Los Angeles focusing on Medicaid programs and on health care issues for seniors and people with disabilities. He brought successful litigation in several states to secure the continuation of Medicaid benefits for people who were losing their Social Security Insurance. He spent the better part of a year forging a coalition of aging organizations that mounted an aggressive and ultimately successful campaign before the California legislature to obtain passage of legislation to assure better staffing and ultimately better care for nursing home residents. Currently, Semmel is involved in litigation to secure access to adequate non-institutional alternatives for residents of a large city-run nursing home in San Francisco.

In addition, he started the Federal Rights Project after the Supreme Court issued a series of cases beginning in 1996 sharply restricting private enforcement of federal laws, particularly against state governments, typical defendants in suits to enforce federal laws benefiting low income persons. Semmel has developed new theories to enforce federal law, such as suits under the Supremacy Clause, to enforce federal rights. This approach has borne fruit with a recent decision by a federal Court in Texas enforcing the Medicaid statute under the Supremacy Clause.

# # #

The National Legal Aid & Defender Association (NLADA), founded in 1911, is the oldest and largest national, nonprofit membership organization devoting all of its resources to advocating equal access to justice for all Americans. NLADA champions effective legal assistance for people who cannot afford counsel, serves as a collective voice for both civil legal services and public defense services throughout the nation and provides a wide range of services and benefits to its individual and organizational members.