NLADA 2007 ANNUAL CONFERENCE AWARDS

The 2007 recipient of the Charles Dorsey Award is Stuart Andrews of Nelson Mullins Riley & Scarborough LLP. The Charles Dorsey Award is given biennially to an individual who has provided extraordinary and dedicated service to the equal justice community and to organizations that promote expanding and improving access to justice for low-income people. To be eligible to receive this award, an individual must have demonstrated a commitment to equal justice for all through service as an officer, board or committee member of a national or statewide organization devoted to fulfilling the promise of equal justice.

The 2007 recipient of the Clara Shortridge Foltz Award is the Public Defender’s Office of the 11th Judicial Circuit of Florida (PD-11). The Clara Shortridge Foltz Award commends a public defender program or defense delivery system for outstanding achievement in the provision of indigent defense services. The achievement may be the result of an effort by the entire program, a division or branch or a special project. This award was named for the founder of the nation's public defender system. Foltz, California's first woman lawyer introduced the "Foltz Defender Bill" at the Congress of Jurisprudence and Law Reform in Chicago in 1893.

Awarded biennially, the Mary Ellen Hamilton Award honors clients who, on a compensated or volunteer basis, have provided extraordinary service or support to the delivery of legal services to the poor. The award honors one of the founders of the National Clients Council and the Alliance for Legal Rights. Mary Ellen Hamilton served on NLADA’s board of directors and remained an active member of the Alliance until her death in 1985.

The winners of the Mary Ellen Hamilton Award are Amelia Nieto and Peggy Santos. Amelia Nieto is a board member of the Legal Aid Foundation (LAFLA) of Los Angeles and director of Centro Shalom. A board member of LAFLA since 1999, she previously sat on the board of the Legal Aid Foundation of Long Beach until the two programs merged. Peggy Santos is a board member of the Massachusetts Legal Assistance Corporation (MLAC). Santos has been involved in social justice activities for more than 35 years and more than 25 years with legal services activities.

The 2007 recipient of the Reginald Heber Smith Award is Mona Tawatao, regional counsel with Legal Services of Northern California (LSNC). The Reginald Heber Smith Award recognizes the dedicated service and outstanding achievements of a civil legal aid attorney or indigent defense attorney while employed by an organization supporting such services. The “Reggie” is named for a former counsel at the Boston Legal Aid Society and the author of Justice and the Poor, published by the Carnegie Foundation in 1919.

For information on this year's Annual Conference Award winners, see the press release.

For information on last year's Annual Conference Awards, see below.

2006 NLADA Annual Awards

The NLADA Annual Conference Awards honor distinguished men and women for outstanding contributions to the delivery of civil legal aid and public defense representation.

To read the press releases on previous winners, click on the links below

Arthur von Briesen Award

Denison Ray Award

Emery A. Brownell Award

Reginald Heber Smith Award

Pierce-Hickerson Award

(Read more about all of the NLADA Awards and view lists of past winners.)