During the Annual Awards Luncheon at the 2015 Annual Conference, equal justice advocates came together to honor outstanding work that has helped thousands of people receive greater access to justice and opportunity.  Nominations came from around the country and were reviewed by leaders from a wide range of organizations. Below are short profiles; find out more about their remarkable contributions on page 19 of the conference program book.

Two other leaders in the field were honored during the conference's opening plenary; learn about their accomplishments here. 

Charles Dorsey Award

Honors an individual who has provided extraordinary and dedicated service to the equal justice community and to organizations that promote improving access to justice for low-income people. It celebrates the accomplishments of the longtime executive director of the Legal Aid Bureau of Maryland.

2015 Recipient: Linda Rexer, Executive Director, Michigan State Bar Foundation

Linda Rexer has led the Michigan State Bar Foundation, which provides significant funding and leadership for civil legal aid, for 30 years. Her long list of national and state leadership roles includes being a founding member of the State Bar of Michigan's Access to Justice Task Force and current co-chair of its successor entity, and co-chair of the Access Committee of the State Bar’s 21st Century Task Force on the Future of Legal Services.  She was co-chair of the Solutions on Self-Help Task Force, which launched the Michigan Legal Help Program; a member of the Management Information Exchange board; president of the National Association of IOLTA (Interest on Lawyers Trust Accounts) Programs; a trustee of the National Conference of Bar Foundations; a member of the ABA Task Force to Revise the Civil Legal Aid Standards; and a member of the Legal Services Corporation’s Performance Criteria Committee.  She is a graduate of the University of Michigan and the University of Notre Dame.

Reginald Heber Smith Award

Recognizes the dedicated service and outstanding achievements of a civil legal aid 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 author of Justice and the Poor (1919), a landmark publication in the history of providing representation to those who cannot afford counsel.

2015 Recipient: Steve Gottlieb, Executive Director, Atlanta Legal Aid

Steve Gottlieb is one of the longest-serving legal aid directors in the country, having led Atlanta Legal Aid since 1980. His connection with the organization began as a summer intern after his second year of law school at the University of Pennsylvania; after graduating in 1969, he returned as a Reginald Heber Smith fellow.  He worked in or managed three of the organization’s offices, then managed the Savannah Office of the Georgia Legal Services Program. In 1977, he returned as deputy director of Atlanta Legal Aid.  Steve has weathered at least three major funding crises during his tenure and has overseen a diversification of revenue sources that has permitted the organization to continue its core functions in good times and bad. Atlanta Legal Aid has enjoyed many successes, including the high profile Olmstead case (the Brown v. Board of Education of disability rights), won in the U.S. Supreme Court in 1999.
 

Mary Ellen Hamilton Award

Honors a legal services client or low-income community leader who has provided extraordinary service or support to the delivery of legal assistance to low-income people. It commemorates Mary Ellen Hamilton, one of the founders of the National Clients Council and the Alliance for Legal Rights and a former member of NLADA’s Board of Directors.

2015 Recipient:  Charlie Morris, Former Board Member, Memphis Area Legal Services

Now in his mid-90s, Mr. Morris saw segregation, racial hatred, and violence in a horrific way: he witnessed his brother being shot, castrated, staked in a river, and die at the hands of a white mob. He turned this tragedy into a commitment to change in Memphis.  He and his late wife were the go-to persons in their community to address economic and political issues and formed the Klondyke Neighborhood Association to gain the attention of government leaders.  He was a board member of Memphis Area Legal Services for more than 30 years and held a series of roles in the client community: on the board of the National Clients Council, helping form the National Organization of Client Advocates and serving its board, and being active on NLADA’s Client Policy Group.  He continues today as a member of the City of Memphis Civilian Law Enforcement Review Board.
 

New Leaders in Advocacy Award

Honors rising attorneys who exhibit extraordinary leadership early in their careers as civil legal aid or indigent defense advocates.

2015 Recipient: Todd L. Belcore, Adjunct Professor, Northwestern University School of Law

Todd teaches a course on eradicating the “New Jim Crow,” and is a consultant helping advocates and organizations nationwide in policy advocacy efforts. As a law student at Northwestern, Todd was president of the public service organization SERV and the Student Bar Association. After law school, Todd worked at the Sargent Shriver National Center on Poverty Law, where he provided full representation to those with records, trained attorneys and advocates on policy reform, contributed to efforts to pass 10 pieces of criminal justice reform legislation, and wrote academic works and blog posts published in the Huffington Post and on the White House blog.
 

Clara Shortridge Foltz Award

Commends a public defender program or public defense delivery system for outstanding achievement in the provision of services to indigent defendants. The award, co-sponsored by NLADA and the American Bar Association’s Standing Committee on Legal Aid and Indigent Defendants, is named for a founder of the nation’s public defender system.

2015 Recipient: Orleans Public Defender Office, Louisiana

Created in the wake of the criminal justice system failure following Hurricane Katrina, the Orleans Public Defender Office has become the benchmark for public defense in Louisiana. It provides client-centered, community-oriented representation in criminal, juvenile, municipal, or traffic court, protecting the guarantees of the Constitution and working for a more open and inclusive, fair, and just criminal justice system. OPD represents nearly 20,000 people each year; has made significant advances in juvenile mitigation, bond advocacy, and mental health representation; and laid the groundwork to reduce recidivism with diversion and alternatives to incarceration programs.