Time to Submit Nominations for the 2008 President's Pro Bono Service Awards and Loren Miller Legal Services Award

The State Bar established these awards in 1983 to provide statewide recognition of California attorneys who have provided or enabled the direct provision of legal services to the poor or to organizations whose primary purpose is to provide legal services to the poor. In 2001, the awards categories were reconfigured to better ensure that lawyers from a wide scope of practice settings be recognized for their extraordinary contributions.

The award categories are:

- Corporate
- Solo Practitioner
- Government
- Small Law Firm
- Emeritus or Limited Active Practice
- Medium Law Firm
- Recently Admitted
- Large Law Firm

Please note that in the small, medium and large law firm categories, individuals as well as attorney teams, branch offices and the firm as a whole can be nominated. Also, if your organization has outstanding volunteers enrolled in the Emeritus Attorney Pro Bono Program or who are not otherwise actively engaged in the practice of law, please consider nominating them in the Emeritus or Limited Active Practice category.

Nominating your volunteers for the 2008 President' s Pro Bono Service Awards is an important form of recognition and one of the best ways to encourage and promote pro bono. If your organization gives its own awards for pro bono contributions, please consider nominating those awardees in the appropriate categories. Information about the recipients of the 2007 President's Pro Bono Service Awards is posted on the State Bar's website at http://calbar.ca.gov/state/calbar/calbar_generic.jsp?cid=11398&id=7082.

Please also consider submitting a nomination for the 2008 Loren Miller Legal Services Award. This award was created in 1977 to honor an attorney who has demonstrated long-term commitment to legal services and who has personally done significant work in extending legal services to the poor. Information about Stewart Kwoh, the 2007 Loren Miller Legal Services Award recipient, is posted on the State Bar's website at http://calbar.ca.gov/state/calbar/calbar_generic.jsp?cid=11398&id=7083.

Please note that the 2008 nomination materials for all awards are available on the State Bar's website at http://calbar.ca.gov/state/calbar/calbar_generic.jsp?cid=11398&id=7081
Awards nominations must be postmarked by March 15, 2008. The 2008 awards will be presented at a reception on Friday, September 26 during the State Bar Annual Meeting in Monterey.

If you have any questions about the awards, please contact me at steve.binder@sdcounty.ca.gov or 619-338-4708, or the SCDLS Staff Liaison, Sharon Ngim, at sharon.ngim@calbar.ca.gov or 415-538-2267. Thank you very much for your consideration.