法律事件
法律援助DC表彰公仆
2024年4月12日
David Tatel accepts his Servant of Justice 奖 from Legal Aid DC.
华盛顿特区的成员和领导人.C., legal community came together on April 9 for Legal Aid DC’s annual Servant of Justice 奖 at JW Marriott in D.C.
“这一事件生动地提醒人们，民主党是如何做到这一点的.C. legal community comes together to use its resources — both legal services 和 financial support — to help st和 up for our neighbors across the city when they face a life-challenging legal crisis,Vikram Swaruup说, 法律援助DC的执行董事.
感谢获奖者和众多其他澳门赌场官网的努力, Legal Aid DC — the District’s oldest 和 largest civil legal aid service — increased its representation of District residents by 10 percent over the past year.
"Every resident deserves access to an attorney to secure protection from an abusive partner, 呆在家里, 或者获得拯救生命的福利. Because of the work of Legal Aid DC attorneys 和 attorneys across the city committing to pro bono work, we were able to accept 76 percent more cases in the first three months of this year compared to the same time in 2023,斯瓦鲁普说.
然而, potential cuts to the city’s Access to Justice Initiative if Mayor Bowser’s 2025 budget passes threaten Legal Aid DC’s ability to serve low-income District residents facing significant legal challenges.
去年，在该区居民的强烈抗议下，D.C. 委员会取消了对法律服务资金的削减，”斯瓦鲁普说. “不幸的是, we are back at the same fight again this year as the mayor’s budget would slash these funds by 67 percent. The fact is that these funds pay for one-third of the employees at Legal Aid DC who will assist some 5,400名居民需要重要的法律服务. These cuts are also just one piece of a larger budget that is balanced on the backs of the struggling residents we serve every day.”
Recognizing individuals’ contributions to Legal Aid DC’s mission of making justice real, 该组织表彰了霍兰德。 & Knight LLP senior counsel Nancy Anderson with the Klepper Prize for Volunteer Excellence for the half-dozen Social Security benefits cases she represented between 2016 和 2024 through Legal Aid DC’s 公益性服务 Program.
Magnolia Alvarez Velasquez was awarded Legal Aid DC’s Partnership 奖. Alvarez Velasquez immigrated to the United States from Guatemala 15 years ago seeking a better life for herself 和 her young children, 后来谁加入了她. After receiving assistance from Legal Aid DC senior staff attorney Julia Ward in resolving the family’s immigration issues, Alvarez Velasquez — who operates a successful tamale st和 with her husb和 in Mount Pleasant — has stepped up to support her community. 她在D之前作证.C. 支持《澳门赌场官网》, which seeks to eliminate criminal penalties for vending without a license in the city.
Wilmer Cutler Pickering Hale 和 Dorr LLP合伙人. 解析:选D.C. 巡回法官大卫·S. 霍根路伟澳门赌场官网事务所的塔特尔获得了“正义公仆奖”. Adegbile, whose work has included arguing several pivotal 公民权利 cases before the U.S. 最高法院, graciously committed a portion of his acceptance speech to recalling his experience arguing a voting rights case before Tatel years prior.
Adegbile had been involved in developing the congressional record at issue in the case, 让他在辩论中占有优势. “我唯一拥有的东西, 走上讲台, 是我知道记录吗,阿德比勒说, 然后我在大卫·塔特尔面前为这个案子辩护. And it was quite jarring 和 unsettling to come to underst和 that I didn’t know the record better than everyone in the country, 和 that there was one very formidable person who I was looking up at that knew the record better than I did.”
Tatel’s nearly six-decade career includes practice in public interest law, 政府服务, 私人诊所, 和美国的近30年.S. 哥伦比亚特区巡回上诉法院. He was the first executive director of the Chicago Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, served as director of the national Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, 并帮助建立了法律服务公司.
Tatel led the Office for Civil Rights under President Jimmy Carter 和, during his time on the D.C. 在巡回法庭上，他裁决了几十个具有里程碑意义的案件. Many of Tatel’s accomplishments came after the loss of his eyesight at age 30.
塔特尔说:“多年来，我一直参加这些晚宴. “The list of people who have received this award are an extraordinary group of people, 我很荣幸能成为他们中的一员.” He opened his acceptance speech by saying, “I have always loved the name of this award. Wouldn’t it be wonderful if every judge were a servant of justice?”
Tatel also praised the work of his co-honoree, Adegbile, on the voting rights cases 西北奥斯丁 市政公用事业区. 1 v. 持有人 和 谢尔比县诉. 持有人, calling the latter’s arguments in those 最高法院 cases masterful.
Tatel said the cases he most fondly remembers from his long service on the bench were brought by public interest, 公民权利, 法律援助澳门赌场官网. “为什么? 因为多亏了那些有经验的澳门赌场官网, 尽管他们的客户在很多方面都处于劣势, 他们站在我的法庭上与权贵平等, 有代表性的公司和政府机构, presenting their claims to a tribunal empowered to provide a complete remedy,塔特尔说.
在那些日子里, 在我的法庭上, 法治还活着，但是, 唉, 这不是大多数穷人的生活方式,他补充道. “Most poor people — indeed, more than 90 percent — have no access to the legal system at all. It’s a bedrock American principle that we all share the same rights, 从高处, 比如言论自由的权利, 更平凡的, 比如准确获得社会保障和福利的权利. Rights are hollow promises if people can’t access our legal system to vindicate those rights.”
“如果法治只服务于富人，它就无法生存,塔特尔继续说道, 这就是为什么像这样的活动如此重要. 我们给华盛顿法律援助的每一美元都是法治的一美元.”
