On Wednesday, September 26th at the annual Equal Justice University, the Tennessee Alliance for Legal Services will present the following awards:
The 2012 B. Riney Green Award will be presented to Margaret L. Behm, first chair of the Tennessee Access to Justice Commission.
The 2012 New Advocate of the Year Award will be presented to Adrienne Kittos from Justice for Our Neighbors – Tennessee.
At Equal Justice University, Tennessee’s annual gathering of legal aid and pro bono civil legal advocates, the Access to Justice Awards are presented to deserving advocates from across the state of Tennessee. The B. Riney Green Award celebrates the advocate who has demonstrated strong inter-program cooperation and the New Advocate of the Year Award celebrates advocates who have excelled within their first five years in public interest law. Find out more about the Awards and about Equal Justice University at http://www.tals.org/equal-justice-university-0.
Excerpts from nominations for award winners:
“Margaret Behm was named by the Court as inaugural Chair of the Commission because Margaret understand that statewide collaboration among legal service providers and other stakeholders is necessary to meeting the unmet civil legal needs of low income Tennesseans. Margaret recognized the amazing work being done by legal aid attorneys and other advocates and developed projects and fostered partnerships to fill in the gaps to take cases or help Tennesseans that legal aid just simply could not take on. The Commission has had much success because of Margaret’s vision and efforts to form a solid relationship with access to justice organizations across the state.”
“Adrienne’s impact on the immigrant community in Middle Tennessee cannot be overstated. Over the three short years of her practice, she has been a quiet force for change in hundreds of lives, helping women escape domestic violence with the benefit of U Visa, reuniting families separated across borders, and allowing hundreds of young students to step out of the shadows and be recognized in their communities. She works effectively in partnership with other organizations and provides the type of creative and powerful advocacy that the New Advocate Award is designed to recognize, tirelessly, on her own, in a choir loft, ever day.”
TALS is appreciative to all those who nominated deserving advocates this year for these awards.
The awards will be presented at Paris Landing State Park on Wednesday, September 26th at the EJU Awards Dinner at 7pm. The speaker at that dinner will be the Honorable Bill Purcell, former Mayor of Metro Nashville.
