4/28/04—Boston College Law School is pleased to announce that it will be hosting this year’s Adams Pro Bono Publico Awards ceremony, sponsored by the Supreme Judicial Court Standing Committee on Pro Bono Legal Services. The ceremony will be held in Room 120 of the East Wing Building on Thursday, May 6, 2004 at 4:30 p.m. A reception will follow in Barat House.

Chief Justice Margaret H. Marshall and Justice Francis X. Spina of the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court will present the awards to three recipients in recognition of outstanding commitment to volunteer legal services for the poor and disadvantaged. The Supreme Judicial Court Standing Committee on Pro Bono Legal Services has selected John A. Burdick, Esq., a sole practitioner in Worcester; Anna E. Dodson, Esq., of Goodwin Procter LLP in Boston; and the Bankruptcy Law Section of the Boston Bar Association to receive the awards.

Named in honor of attorneys John Adams and John Quincy Adams, the Adams Pro Bono Publico Awards recognize individual lawyers, law firms, government attorneys, corporate law departments, and other institutions in the legal profession in Massachusetts that have "demonstrated outstanding commitment to volunteer legal services for the poor and disadvantaged, including the Committee for Public Counsel Services (CPCS), legal services or similar providers who conduct non-program pro bono work."

The Standing Committee on Pro Bono Legal Services select awardees from among those who have excelled in one or more of the following ways: (1) demonstrated dedication in development and delivery of legal services to the poor through a pro bono program; (2) contributed significant work toward developing innovative approaches to delivery of voluntary legal services; (3) participated in an activity which resulted in satisfying previously unmet needs or in extending services to underserved segments of the population; (4) successfully litigated pro bono cases that favorably affected the provision of other services to the poor; and (5) successfully achieved legislation that contributed substantially to legal services for the poor.

Last year, awards were presented to Michael G. Paris, a partner in the Boston law firm of Brown Rudnick Berlack Israels LLP; the New Bedford law firm of Stanford & Shall; and the Women’s Bar Foundation, the charitable and educational affiliate of the Women’s Bar Association.

The Supreme Judicial Court Standing Committee on Pro Bono Legal Services works to promote volunteer legal work in Massachusetts to help people of limited means in need of legal representation, in accordance with SJC Rule 6.1.

Law school students and faculty are invited to attend the awards presentation and reception.