The Board of Directors of the Maryland Legal Services Corporation (MLSC) presented its 2011 legal services awards to this year’s recipients at the organization’s annual awards reception on Dec. 5.
M. Natalie McSherry of Kramon and Graham P.A., and Mitchell Y. Mirviss of Venable LLP, both received the Arthur W. Machen, Jr. Award, presented annually to an attorney (usually in private practice) who has rendered extraordinary service by providing civil legal services to the poor or by improving the civil legal services delivery system for such persons.
McSherry, in private practice for more than 30 years, has been an active volunteer providing pro bono services and serving on the boards of Maryland Volunteer Lawyers Service and other legal services programs.
Mirviss has been active as lead counsel in the lengthy class action suit to reform the Baltimore City foster care system for more than 20 years and provides continuous pro bono representation of children with severe disabilities.
Debra L. Gardner, legal director of the Public Justice Center, was honored as this year’s recipient of the MLSC Benjamin L. Cardin Distinguished Service Award. This award is presented annually to an outstanding public interest attorney regularly involved in providing, promoting or managing civil legal services to the poor. Gardner has dedicated more than 25 years to legal services and has provided leadership in the Right to Counsel/Civil Gideon efforts locally and nationally.
This year’s William L. Marbury Outstanding Advocate Award, for a non-attorney who has demonstrated outstanding service representing the rights and legal needs of low-income persons or by expanding access to justice for such persons, was presented to Michelle Swift, pro bono program manager at Maryland Volunteer Lawyers Service. For 13 years, as a paralegal and manager, Swift has shown dedication to her clients and the attorney volunteers.
MLSC presented the Herbert S. Garten Public Citizen Award, which honors an entity or organization not regularly engaged in the delivery of legal services to low-income persons, to Maryland People’s Law Library, which has been maintained by the Maryland State Law Library since 2007. The People’s Law Library is an award-winning web site that provides legal and self-help information on Maryland and federal law affecting low- and moderate-income Marylanders and their families.
The MLSC board also presented an Award of Special Recognition to Janet Stidman Eveleth, the recently retired director of communications of the Maryland State Bar Association, for her journalistic coverage of legal services issues during her 24-year tenure.
MLSC annually solicits nominations for legal services awards from bar associations, legal services programs and other interested persons and organizations. MLSC was established by the Maryland General Assembly in 1982 to receive and distribute funds to nonprofit organizations that provide civil legal assistance to low-income persons.
From its inception, MLSC has made grants totaling more than $149 million to help provide services in more than 1.8 million legal matters for Maryland’s families in areas of family, housing, consumer, employment, health care and other civil legal matters.
