Pro Bono News

STATE BAR OF GEORGIA PRO BONO AWARDS PRESENTED

Wednesday, June 20, 2007

  • Mike Monahan
  • State Bar of Georgia Pro Bono Project
  • Source: Georgia

Atlanta- The Pro Bono Project, the State Bar of Georgia's Access to Justice Committee and the Bar's A Business Commitment Pro Bono Business Law Committee conferred their highest awards on Atlanta attorney Timothy B. Phillips, the Dougherty County Law Library's Legal Infromation and Assistance Center, Georgia Legal Services Program attorney Wendy Glasbrenner, and Atlanta attorneys Paul D. Fincher and Lynn E. Fowler during a June 15 awards ceremony at the Bar's Annual Meeting at The Sawgrass Marriott Resort & Spa in Ponte Vedra Beach, Fla.

Timothy Phillips, Associate Corporate Counsel of the American Cancer Society, Inc., received the H Sol Clark Award. The H. Sol Clark Award, first awarded in 1983, is named for former Georgia Court of Appeals Judge Clark of Savannah, who is known as the "father of legal aid in Georgia." The Clark award honors an individual lawyer who has excelled in one or more of a variety of activities that extend legal services to the poor. Phillips was recognized for his deep involvement in the civil legal services and pro bono community in the form of direct representation of low-income individuals and of nonprofit organizations that serve the poor. In addition to the direct representation, Phillips has taught numerous community education seminars in various parts of Georgia, trained other volunteer lawyers, and has participated on several boards of organizations that deliver or coordinate free legal services to the poor.

The William B. Spann, Jr. Award was presented by the Access to Justice Committee of the State Bar of Georgia and the Pro Bono Project to the Dougherty County Law Library's Legal Information and Assistance Center for its small-city/rural focus in delivering critical access to legal information, forms and lawyer-supervised advice clinics. The Information Center provides resources to self-represented litigants, enabling more low-income households to resolve legal problems and assisting the courts and judges to more effectively process cases. The Dougherty County Law Library Legal Information and Assistance Center partnership with the Darton College Paralegal Student Association, the Dougherty Circuit Bar Association and Georgia Legal Services Program, provides an excellent model for increasing access for low-income households to legal information and assistance in rural Georgia.

The Spann Award is given each year to either a local bar association or a community organization project which has "developed a pro bono program that has satisfied previously unmet needs or extended services to underserved segments of the population." The award is named for a former president of the American Bar Association and former executive director of the State Bar of Georgia.

The State Bar of Georgia's Access to Justice Committee also awarded the Dan Bradley Legal Services Award to Wendy Glasbrenner, a managing attorney with the Gainesville Regional Office of Georgia Legal Services Program. Glasbrenner was honored for her 28 years of commitment to providing quality legal services to low-income Georgians and for excellence in managing the delivery of legal services for 24 counties in northeast Georgia. Glasbrenner was also praised by the Bar for her work to build community approaches to poverty and family violence issues. The Bradley award honors the memory of Georgia native and Mercer Law graduate Dan J. Bradley, who was president of the federal Legal Services Corporation from 1979 to 1982. Mr. Bradley began his career as a staff attorney with Florida Migrant Legal Services in 1967. He is credited by many with having been instrumental in saving the Legal Services Corporation, which funds programs like Georgia Legal Services Program and the Atlanta Legal Aid Society, from elimination during the early years of the Reagan administration. The Dan Bradley Legal Services Award recognizes the work of an Atlanta Legal Aid or Georgia Legal Services Program attorney who has excelled in the commitment to the delivery of quality legal services to the poor and to providing equal access to justice.

The A Business Commitment Pro Bono Business Law Committee of the State Bar of Georgia presented its annual pro bono award to Paul D. Fancher, Troutman Sanders, LLP, and Lynn E. Fowler, Kilpatrick Stockton, LLP. The A Business Commitment (ABC) Pro Bono Business Law Award honors the business law pro bono contributions of an individual lawyer, corporate legal department or law firm in areas such as real property, contracts, intellectual property, employment and taxation. The ABC Award focuses on a lawyer's service to the nonprofit and community economic development sectors in Georgia. Fancher and Fowler were presented with an ABC Award for professionalism and outstanding commitment to the delivery of pro bono business law services to the nonprofit and community economic development sectors in Georgia, exemplified by their outstanding pro bono contributions to several clients of the Atlanta Pro Bono Partnership and the Georgia A Business Commitment Pro Bono Project. The nonprofit clients served by the two lawyers noted the professionalism and quality work of their respective volunteer. Fancher and Fowler's involvement in community organizations represents a growing trend of lawyers providing free business law services to organizations that serve poor or marginalized communities.

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The State Bar of Georgia, created by order of the Supreme Court of Georgia in 1964, is a mandatory organization composed of more than 38,000 lawyers licensed to practice law in Georgia. Its predecessor, the Georgia Bar Association, was a voluntary group whose existence spanned from 1884 until the bar was unified in 1964. State Bar headquarters is located in Atlanta and a South Georgia satellite office is located in Tifton.