Public Service Award

The community of lawyers has a long-standing commitment to providing pro bono legal services to the poor and underserved. The members of women’s bar associations individually, and often as a group, strive to provide their legal expertise to help those most in need.

Anyone who answers the telephone for a women’s bar association knows that many members of the public and, indeed, of the legal profession, assume that women lawyers will want to take on pro bono work for any woman or child in need of legal services. There is an enormous unmet need.

Recognizing that the needs of the community extend beyond those for legal services, many women’s bar associations engage in a variety of charitable activities, ranging from clothing and food drives, educational support and fundraising for battered women’s shelters.

For the most part, the good works of individual attorneys and bar associations go unnoticed by all but the beneficiaries. Once each year, the National Conference of Women’s Bar Associations (NCWBA) chooses one or two great projects of member organizations as a way of thanking the associations involved for their work and as a way of showcasing ideas which might be suitable for adoption by other groups.

The very first NCWBA Public Service Award was presented to the Black Women Lawyers Association of Los Angeles and the Women Lawyers Association of Los Angeles by US Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O’Connor on July 8,1985 as part of a “Women in Law” reception at the Supreme Court. The groups were honored for their work in founding and supporting the Los Angeles Buhai Center of Family Law.

All current members in good standing with the NCWBA may submit a public service award nomination.

Effective January 2006, the NCWBA adopted a policy of retaining all nominations for two years.  Any organization that does not receive an award for the year its program is submitted will be reconsidered the following year.