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| Bar Bulletin |
December,
2003 |
| MSBA News |
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MLSC Announces 2003
Legal Services Awards
On
December 8, Maryland Legal Services Corporation (MLSC) held its 2003
Annual Awards Ceremony at the Radisson Plaza Lord Baltimore Hotel,
Baltimore Inner Harbor, honoring the 2003 legal services award winners. F.
Vernon Boozer, Chairman of the MLSC Board, and Chief Judge Robert Bell
presented awards to the following recipients:
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The
Maryland State Bar Association (MSBA) received the Herbert S.
Garten Public Citizen Award, created in honor of Mr. Garten’s
outstanding contributions to legal services throughout his distinguished
career, as evidenced during his tenure as President of the MSBA (1990),
Chairman of MLSC (1995 – 2003), and as a newly-appointed Board member of
the federal Legal Services Corporation. The MSBA was honored for its
consistent, demonstrable commitment, dedication and leadership in
efforts to advance access to justice for all Marylanders.
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Stephen H. Sachs, Of Counsel, Wilmer, Cutler & Pickering,
received the Arthur W. Machen, Jr., Award. This award is
presented annually to an attorney who has rendered extraordinary service
by providing civil legal services to the poor or by improving the civil
legal services delivery system for such persons.
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Gregory L. Countess, Assistant Director of Advocacy at the Legal Aid
Bureau, Inc., received the MLSC Benjamin L. Cardin Distinguished
Service Award. This award is presented annually to an outstanding
public interest attorney regularly involved in providing civil legal
services to the poor.
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Winifred C. Borden, Executive Director of Maryland Volunteer Lawyers
Service and Beverly Mondin-VanderHaar, Executive Director of the Bar
Association and Bar Foundation of Montgomery County, Maryland, received
this year’s William L. Marbury Outstanding Advocate Award,
presented to two exceptional individuals for their tireless efforts,
creative energy and longstanding service to Maryland’s poor.
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Awards of Special Recognition for outstanding
support for access to justice went to Diana Morris, Open Society
Institute’s Executive Director; Connie Kratovil Lavelle, and the law
firm of Beins, Goldberg & Gleiberman. Herbert S. Garten and Jose A.
Toro, former MLSC Board members, were honored for their outstanding
service on behalf of the MLSC.
The
MLSC annually solicits nominations for legal services awards from bar
associations, legal services programs and other interested persons and
organizations. The MLSC is a nonprofit organization created by the
Maryland General Assembly in 1982 to raise funds from IOLTA and other
sources and make grants for the delivery of civil legal service to
Maryland’s poor. The MLSC awarded grants totaling $6,470,325 to 28 legal
services provider organizations for FY 2004 (July 1, 2003 – June 30,
2004). MLSC grantees provided legal assistance to 105,410 persons
throughout the state during the past year.
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