Arthur von Briesen Award (biennial)

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The Author von Briesen award honors an attorney not employed by a legal services or defender program, who has made substantial volunteer contributions in support of the delivery of legal services and/or indigent defense representation. The award celebrates the achievements of the first president of NLADA

Arthur Von Briesen winners listing

Frequency:
Biennial
Year:
2014
Recipient(s) name:

Maureen Alger

Recipient organization:
Partner, Cooley LLP
Palo Alto , California
Where presented :
NLADA Annual Conference
Reason for selection of recipient(s):

Maureen Alger is a litigation partner and the firm-wide Pro Bono Partner at Cooley LLP . As Pro Bono Partner, she manages Cooley’s pro bono practice across eleven offices. Maureen spends a significant amount of her time collaborating with local, regional, and national legal services organizations to develop pro bono partnerships and projects that enhance access to legal services. For example, Maureen worked closely with OneJustice and the national Association of Pro Bono Counsel (APBCo) to develop the Bay Area Rural Justice Collaborative, a pro bono project serving those in rural and isolated communities who would not otherwise have access to legal services.

Maureen is a co-founder and board member of AP BCo and has also served on the boards of OneJustice, Legal Aid Society of San Mateo County, and Western Center on Law and Poverty. She has a B.A. from University of California at Berkeley, received her J.D. from Columbia Law School, and clerked for the Hon. Martha Craig Daughtrey of the United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit. She has taught as adjunct faculty at Stanford Law School and University of California/Hastings College of the Law.

Frequency:
Biennial
Year:
2012
Recipient(s) name:

Richard Tate

Recipient organization:
Partner, Tate Moerer & King, LLP
Richmond, Texas
Where presented :
NLADA Annual Conference
Reason for selection of recipient(s):

Nearly two decades ago, Tate responded to a simple request for volunteers in the Texas Bar Journal. He signed up to help with the Texas Equal Access to Justice Foundation (now known as the Texas Access to Justice Foundation)
based largely on his experience growing up in a small town in North Caroline that instilled in him an aspiration of ensuring the courthouse door is open to all who need it. He has served as Chair of the Foundation Board of Directors since 1999. On becoming the Chair, he immediately began working closely with the team of lawyers defending the constitutionality of Texas’ IOLTA program. Other significant accomplishments during his tenure include: assisting in preserving LSC funding through his meetings with the TX Congressional delegation in the US Congress; securing state funding to replace cuts in LSC funding, resulting in no lay-offs or office closings in 2011-12 in TX, one of the few states in the country that were saved from that fate; the establishment of a fellows program in partnership with Equal Justice Works that has brought 29 fellow to TX during the last decade; leading several initiatives to combat falling interest rates that led the TX Supreme Court to pass an IOLTA account Comparability Rule; nearly tripling the amount of grants distribution from the Foundation, despite dramatic reductions in IOLTA funds due to falling interest rates.

A courageous and compassionate leader, he has established strong working relationships with legal aid providers, local bar leaders, partners in the banking industry, and collaborations with the State Bar of TX and TX Access to Justice Commission. Annually, Tate participates in championing the needs of TX legal aid providers in Washington, DC with the TX Congressional delegation and he regularly testifies before the TX Supreme Court and legislature on the legal funding needs of poor Texans. In addition to his generous donation of time and talent to the Foundation, he significantly contributes financially as well to supporting civil legal aid and routinely handles pro bono matters.

Tate is a private practitioner for 32 years and the founding partner of his firm. He earned his law degree from the University of Houston and his undergraduate degree from Pan American University, and a master’s degree from the LBJ School of Public Affairs at the University of Texas at Austin.

Frequency:
Biennial
Year:
2010
Recipient(s) name:

Chris Messerly and Philip Sieff,Robins, Kaplan, Miller & Cerisi, L.L.P., Minneapolis, MN

Where presented :
NLADA Annual Conference
Frequency:
Biennial
Year:
2008
Recipient(s) name:

Andrew F. Susko

Recipient organization:
White and Williams, LLP of Philadelphia
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Where presented :
NLADA Annual Conference
Reason for selection of recipient(s):

Susko, a partner with the Philadelphia law firm of White and Williams, LLP, has given countless hours as an advocate, leader and volunteer for providing legal help to low-income individuals. He has worked hundreds of hours as a pro bono attorney for indigent clients, including several whose rights could have easily been ebbed by their mental and physical disabilities. As president-elect and later president of the Pennsylvania Bar Association (PBA), he led the PBA in improving legal access for the poor, including the passage of resolutions creating a pro bono standard for attorneys and pushing the state’s legislature to increase funding for legal aid.

“Andy has continually demonstrated his commitment to the service of indigent clients in Pennsylvania since 1990; but, his efforts were most visible on a statewide basis during his term as the president of the 30,000 member Pennsylvania Bar Association (PBA) for the 2007-2008 fiscal year,” described Alfred Azen, executive director of the Pennsylvania Interest on Lawyers Trust Account Board, in his letter of support. “During his term he sought to heighten the awareness of the civil legal needs of low income Pennsylvanian among the organized bar, elected and appointed public officials at the local, state, and federal levels, the general public through frequent media releases, and other community leaders. He demonstrated vision and leadership by having favorable PBA policy position established so that they will provide direction to the legislative and other work of the association long after his term as president. He initiated a PBA legislative initiative, PBA Day on the Hill, which is destined to instill a culture of legal aid support within the association.”