ABA News

NYU law professor receives ABA award honoring commitment to child welfare legal scholarship

Martin Guggenheim, Fiorello LaGuardia Professor of Clinical Law at NYU School of Law, will be honored by the American Bar Association Center for Children and the Law with its Mark Hardin Award for Child Welfare Legal Scholarship and Systems Change during a ceremony on April 7 at the center’s National Parent Representation Conference in Tysons Corner, Virginia.

Guggenheim, who is retiring after 49 years, co-teaches the Family Defense Clinic. A well-known scholar in the area of children and the law, he is the co-chair of the ABA National Alliance for Parent Representation Steering Committee and has been the inspiration for the Parent Representation Movement. His scholarship stresses that child advocates must also be family advocates, and that sustainable child welfare reform requires a deep and abiding commitment to strengthening and honoring families.

The award is named for the longtime director of child welfare at the Center on Children and the Law in honor of his history as an early innovator in that field. The award is given to an attorney, law professor, judge or legislator who has shown achievement and commitment to legal scholarship and systems change, such as authoring child welfare legislation, leading a child welfare agency through major system change or having a key role in litigation that resulted in major system change.

The ABA Center for Children and the Law advances access to justice for children and families and improves children’s lives through advances in law, justice, knowledge, practice and public policy by focusing on child abuse and neglect, legal representation, child welfare and protective services system enhancement, family preservation, adolescent health and other child protective legal issues. 

Judge Pamila J. Brown to receive ABA Liberty Achievement

The American Bar Association Tort Trial and Insurance Practice Section will honor Pamila J. Brown, district administrative judge for the District Court of Maryland, with its Liberty Achievement Award. This award celebrates lawyers and judges who have spent their career actively promoting diversity and inclusion within the legal profession.

The award, sponsored by Thomson Reuters, will be presented to Brown at a reception at the Hyatt Regency Baltimore Inner Harbor on April 27 during the TIPS Section Conference.

“Thomson Reuters is proud of its ongoing support of TIPS, and we are honored to present this year’s Liberty Achievement Award to Judge Brown,” said Thomas Kim, Thomson Reuters chief legal officer and company secretary. “Whether on the bench, as a lawyer, as a law school or judicial school faculty member and lecturer, or leading a legal organization, Judge Brown has dedicated her career to making an impact in the lives of citizens and legal professionals, and especially legal professionals of color. I can’t imagine a more fitting recipient to be honored for promoting diversity in the law.”

Brown served as an associate judge in Howard County, Maryland, from 2002-17. She was named administrative judge in 2017 and presides over civil, criminal, domestic and traffic cases as well as administrative matters. Prior to her appointment Brown served as principal counsel and Maryland assistant attorney general and as an assistant city solicitor in the Baltimore City Law Department.

She has been deeply involved in the community and is a past president of the Metropolitan Baltimore YWCA, and the first woman of color to serve as president of the Bar Association of Baltimore City and the Howard County Bar Associations. She is the recipient of the Torch Bearer Award from the National Coalition of 100 Black Women, and is a frequent lecturer on ethics, tort liability, litigation techniques and trial advocacy, gender equity, domestic violence, traffic matters, implicit bias and diversity and inclusion, civics education and professionalism.

Brown has served as an adjunct professor at the University of Baltimore Law School and on the faculty of the Maryland Judicial College and the National Judicial College. Long active in the ABA, she is a former chair of the Government and Public Sector Lawyers Division, a member of the Task Force on Human Trafficking and is currently on the Board of Governors. She has served on the board of the Maryland Bar Foundation and is former president of the Maryland State Bar Association.

The ABA Tort Trial and Insurance Practice Section unites plaintiff, defense, insurance and corporate counsel to advance the civil justice system. TIPS is a national source of expertise in tort, trial and insurance practice and brings lawyers together to share information and speak out on issues of importance. The section has over 10,000 members and more than 30 general committees that focus on substantive and procedural matters in areas across the broad spectrum of civil law and practice. For additional information about the Tort Trial and Insurance Practice Section, visit the TIPS website at www.americanbar.org/tips.

Harvard Law School’s Chris Green to receive ABA animal law award

Chris Green, executive director of the Brooks McCormick Jr. Animal Law & Policy Program at Harvard Law School, will receive the American Bar Association’s Tort Trial and Insurance Practice Section (TIPS) Animal Law Committee’s Excellence in the Advancement of Animal Law Award at a reception on April 28 during the TIPS Section Conference, April 27-30. The award recognizes exceptional work by an Animal Law Committee member who, through commitment and leadership, has advanced the humane treatment of animals through the law. 

“Chris Green is a trailblazer in shaping the field of animal law,” said John McMeekin, chair of the ABA Tort Trial and Insurance Practice Section. “He is a true advocate for animals and was the lead drafter and promoter of the ABA policy adopted by the House of Delegates in 2020 calling for training on the use of force during encounters with animals. TIPS is proud to honor our friend and colleague with the Excellence in the Advancement of Animal Law Award.”

Green is the first executive director of Harvard’s Animal Law & Policy Program. Under his leadership, the program has experienced tremendous growth, expanding its animal law course offerings, fellowship programs, scholarship and research opportunities and establishing the Harvard Animal Law & Policy Clinic. Last year the program received a $10 million endowment from the Brooks Institute for Animal Rights Law and Policy, which is to date the largest philanthropic gift in the field of animal law.

Green, who has been involved in animal law for 22 years, is a founding member and former chair of the TIPS Animal Law Committee and previously was the director of legislative affairs for the Animal Legal Defense Fund. In those capacities, Green persuaded the top three U.S. airlines to stop transporting endangered animal hunting trophies, helped defeat “ag-gag” legislation in several states and successfully passed an ABA resolution recommending that all U.S. legislative bodies outlaw the possession of dangerous wild animals.

He received his law degree from Harvard Law School and his bachelor’s in environmental science from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign.

The ABA Tort Trial and Insurance Practice Section unites plaintiff, defense, insurance and corporate counsel to advance the civil justice system. TIPS is a national source of expertise in tort, trial and insurance practice and brings lawyers together to share information and speak out on issues of importance. The section has over 10,000 members and more than 30 general committees that focus on substantive and procedural matters in areas across the broad spectrum of civil law and practice. For additional information about the Tort Trial and Insurance Practice Section, visit the TIPS website at www .americanbar.org/tips.