At a reception at the offices of Skadden Arps, high above Times Square in New York City, the 2010 Morris Dees Justice Award was given to Larry Hammond, founder and chair of the Arizona Justice Project. The award is jointly sponsored by The University of Alabama Law School and Skadden Arps. The award ceremony was held November 18, 2010.
Legendary civil rights attorney Morris Dees, a UA Law School alumnus and co-founder and chief trial counsel of the Southern Poverty Law Center, presented the award to Hammond, a partner in the Arizona law firm of Osborn Maledon, P.A.
UA Law School Dean Ken Randall and Skadden Arps partner Bob Sheehan also participated in the ceremony, recognizing the vital role of attorneys who have dedicated their professional lives to the pursuit of justice.
The Morris Dees Justice Award was created in 2006 by Skadden Arps and The University of Alabama School of Law to honor Dees for his life-long devotion to public service. The award is given annually to a lawyer who has devoted his or her career to serving the public interest and pursuing justice, and whose work has brought about positive change in the community, state, or nation.
Hammond, the 2010 award recipient, has spent much of his career in public service, including stints clerking for U.S. Supreme Court Justices Hugo L. Black and Lewis F. Powell, Jr.; as an Assistant Special Prosecutor during Watergate; and as Deputy Assistant Attorney General in the Office of Legal Counsel at the Department of Justice.
Hammond is the founder and chair of the Arizona Justice Project, and a member of the Board of the Arizona Capital Representation Project. He also serves as chair of the Criminal Justice Reform Committee of The American Judicature Society (AJS), an organization he served as president from 2003 to 2005.
Hammond was honored for his tireless work to correct systemic injustice in death penalty litigation in the United States, for his representation of defendants in capital cases and for leading efforts to create the AJS Institute for Forensic Science and Public Policy during his presidency of AJS.
A recipient of many local and national awards, Hammond was nominated by a distinguished group that included former U.S. Attorney General Janet Reno and former Dean of Yale Law School Harold Hongju Koh.
The first Morris Dees Justice Award recipient, in 2006, was U.S. District Judge William Wayne Justice, of the Eastern District of Texas. The 2007 winner was Arthur N. Read, general counsel for Friends of Farmworkers, Inc., based in Philadelphia. The 2008 award went to Cheryl Little, executive director of the Florida Immigrant Advocacy Center, which is located in Miami. Last year’s award recipient was presented to Gordon Bonnyman, Jr., executive director of the Tennessee Justice Center in Nashville.
A sculpture commemorating the award was created by Jillian Crochet, a graduate of The University of Alabama who won the design competition in 2006.
Members of the 2010 Morris Dees Justice Award Selection Committee, who were charged with choosing this year’s recipient, are:
Morris Dees, Honorary Chair
Kenneth C. Randall, Co-Chair (The University of Alabama School of Law)
Robert C. Sheehan, Co-Chair (Skadden, Arps)
Helaine M. Barnett, Past President, Legal Services Corporation
Judge Bernice B. Donald, Western District, Tennessee / Secretary, American Bar Association
Bryan Fair, Thomas E. Skinner Professor of Law, The University of Alabama School of Law
Cheryl I. Harris, Professor of Law, UCLA School of Law
Bradley S. Phillips, Co-Chair, Lawyers Committee for Civil Rights Under Law
Susan Butler Plum, Director, Skadden Fellowship Foundation
Steven R. Shapiro, Legal Director, ACLU
Jeffrey Toobin, Senior Analyst, CNN
Vaughn C. Williams, Partner, Skadden, Arps
Judith A. Winston, Former General Counsel & Undersecretary, U.S. Department of Education
