Nominations Invited for the 2010 Louis M. Brown Award for Legal Access

The Louis M. Brown Award for Legal Access honors those programs and projects dedicated to matching the unmet legal needs of the middle class with lawyers who provide affordable legal information, services and representation. Established by the American Bar Association's Standing Committee on the Delivery of Legal Services in 1994, the Brown Award recognizes innovative contributions to the delivery of legal services to those of moderate income.

Award recipients are those programs and projects that have made substantial or creative contributions to the delivery of legal services. Brown Award recipients include:

• The Legal Resolutions Center of the Legal Aid Society of Orange County, California
• The California Commission on Access to Justice
• Self-Represented Litigant Task Force of the State of Maine
• The AARP Legal Hotlines Project

For a complete list of prior Brown Award Recipients, click here.

Award Criteria

The criteria were revised in 2007 to include the following points:

1. Significant improvement of the delivery of legal services and information to moderate income people - 30 points
2. Innovation in the development, funding or implementation of the delivery of legal services - 30 points
3. The ability to replicate the program or project in other settings - 25 points
4. Demonstrated success in the operation of the program or project - 15 points
5. Demonstrated capacity to generate compensation for lawyers providing affordable legal services - 15 points

 

The Nomination Process

A nomination submission should include the following:

1. Nomination Information Sheet

   The nomination information sheet should be submitted as the cover sheet of the nomination package. Please complete this form and send with your nomination materials.

   Nomination Information Sheet

2. Program Description or Nominee Resume

   Please attach a brief (200 word or less) description of the project, program, or individual being nominated. Be certain to identify the contribution made for the advancement of legal services access to the moderate income. Please attach any other information that documents what the nominee has done to enhance legal access, including any publicity received. (You may complete this portion on the Nomination Information Sheet)

 

3. Supporting Materials

1. The package may include specific documentation and other materials, such as news articles, that demonstrate the nominee's contributions.
2. Nomination materials should include information about the ability to replicate the program or project.

Please keep a copy of your entry. Nomination submissions and materials supplied as exhibits cannot be returned.

4. Submissions

   Send the nomination sheet and supporting materials electronically to . Nominations for the Brown Award for Legal Access are due no later than December 17, 2009.

 

Award Presentation

Awards will be presented during the ABA Midyear Meeting in Orlando, on February 3, 2010.

 

Eligibility For Nomination

1. Nominations may be made by others, although self-nomination is encouraged;
2. Prior Brown Award recipients are not eligible to reenter in subsequent years. Individuals connected with such programs, however, are not precluded from nomination for a new program or project;
3. Recipients of Meritorious Recognitions are eligible for subsequent nomination;

Selection Process

The ABA Standing Committee on the Delivery of Legal Services will review the nominations and select the 2010 Brown Award recipient. Meritorious Recognition Awards may be granted to additional nominees at the Committee's discretion. The Committee reserves the right not to present the Award in a given year.

Nominees will be included in the Committee publication Profiles of Moderate Income Delivery Programs and featured on the Committee's Website.

Please submit all materials to:
William Hornsby
ABA Louis M. Brown Award Subcommittee
321 N. Clark Street, 19th Floor
Chicago, IL 60654-7598
Phone: (312) 988-5761

The mandate of the Standing Committee on the Delivery of Legal Services is to improve the delivery of legal services to moderate income people and the public in general by studying alternative methods of providing legal services, evaluating new methods of delivering legal services and by encouraging participation by members of the bar in the employment of such alternative and new methods.

Richard Cassidy
Burlington, VT

Jeanne Charn
Cambridge, MA

Bob Cohen
Santa Ana, CA

Fern Fisher
New York, NY

Luz Elena Herrera
San Diego, CA

Elio F. Martinez, Jr.
Coral Gables, FL

Michael Millemann
Baltimore MD

Carl Arthur Pierce
Knoxville, TN

Pamela D. Stevenson
Scott AFB, IL