WASHINGTON DC, (November 20) - The National Legal Aid and Defender Association (NLADA) honored two giants in the field of equal justice at its 2014 Annual Conference Opening Ceremony last week in Arlington, Virginia. Senator Tom Harkin (D-Iowa) received NLADA's first-ever Champion of Justice through Public Service Award, and Mary McClymont, President of the Public Welfare Foundation, accepted the NLADA Award for Justice through Philanthropy.

The Champion of Justice through Public Service Award honors a public servant who has, through leadership, advocacy, and engagement, significantly enhanced the accessibility of justice in America for those unable to afford legal counsel. Senator Harkin has served five Senate terms in a congressional career that began in 1974. As Chair of the Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) Committee, he has made a critical impact on the legal aid community. In addition to his repeated commitment to the protection of the Legal Services Corporation, he has been an instrumental figure in countless pieces of legislation supporting legal services providers and their clients, most notably sponsoring the Americans with Disabilities Act. Senator Harkin was celebrated as a proponent of American labor rights, and his advocacy around loan forgiveness has made him a hero to the legal aid and public defense communities alike.

In his remarks accepting the award, Sen. Harkin quoted Justice Louis Powell in saying "Equal justice under law is not merely a caption on the façade of the Supreme Court building. It is perhaps the most inspiring ideal of our society." He called for the undoing of laws and other regulatory barriers that "impede the ability of [legal aid attorneys] to provide the most meaningful and effective legal representation." While recollecting on his early days with Neighborhood Legal Services Program in Washington, D.C., Sen. Harkin urged new lawyers to "think about legal services not just as something to do on the way to somewhere else, but to think about it as a career. You'll make a difference in a lot of people's lives." In closing, Sen. Harkin noted, "I'm retiring this year from the Senate, but I'm not retiring from this fight. As long as people who are greedy and want to use their wealth and to accumulate wealth at the expense of humans, at the expense of our environment, at the expense of our future, as long as that greed is out there, we got a job to do, and that's why I'm in this fight."

Mary McClymont received the NLADA Justice through Philanthropy Award. As President of the Public Welfare Foundation, she has overseen a special initiative to support and strengthen America's legal services infrastructure. The award was given in recognition of this major initiative and of her ongoing efforts to promote civil and criminal justice reform. After accepting the award, Ms. McClymont said the Public Welfare Foundation is "in the justice reform philanthropy business - and proud to be there." She recounted a few of the initiatives supported by the Foundation, including efforts to "end the egregious over-incarceration of adults in our country" and "seeking to beat back wage theft and improve basic health and safety protections for low-wage workers." She also drew special attention to efforts seeking an end to "the disruptive detention of children in the juvenile justice system, which nobody knows about, and we're trying to get those kids out of incarceration and redirect those resources to the community, where those kids belong." In closing, Ms. McClymont assured the audience that "all of you are absolutely on the right track. This to us at Public Welfare is game-changing. You are embracing all of those varied leaders and new approaches I've alluded to [that] expand access to justice, all under the rubric of civil legal aid. If we use this collective kind of thinking, there really is a good shot at closing the distance to the ambitious but necessary goal … to provide some form of effective assistance for 100 percent of people who otherwise can't afford an attorney for their essential legal needs."

Previously, Ms. McClymont served as executive director of Global Rights, an international human rights organization; and as president and chief executive officer of InterAction, the largest alliance of U.S.- based international development and humanitarian NGOs. Additionally, she was formerly senior staff counsel at the National Prison Project of the American Civil Liberties Union and a trial attorney at the Civil Rights Division of the U.S. Department of Justice.

The NLADA Annual Conference is the largest training opportunity designed exclusively for our community of practitioners engaged in civil legal aid and public defense. The four-day conference features dozens of elite, peer-led, learning sessions, expert speakers, and the opportunity to network with the top legal service professionals in America.