Philly Justice Ball: For Justice Everywhere
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Save the date!
Join the celebration of our Philadelphia Bar Foundation Award and Pro Bono Award recipients on November 9, 2024 at 2300 Arena! More information to come.
The Philadelphia Bar Foundation is proud to announce the recipients of our 2024 Awards!
Marc Bookman is the Director of the Atlantic Center for Capital Representation and a nationally recognized expert on death penalty litigation. From 1993 to 2010 he served in the Homicide Unit of the Defender Association of Philadelphia. During his tenure there he successfully argued for expanded discovery in death penalty cases, the right to quash an aggravating circumstance pre-trial, barring the non-shooter from the felony murder aggravating circumstance, and expanded voir dire. None of his clients ever received a death sentence.
Since 1995 he has presented at numerous death penalty conferences, including those sponsored by the National Legal Aid and Defender Association, the National Association for Criminal Defense Lawyers, and the NAACP Legal Defense Fund, and has been on the faculty of numerous hands-on trainings sponsored by the Bureau of Justice Assistance and the National Institute of Trial Advocacy. His essays about various criminal justice issues have made the list of Notable Essays in Best American Essays 2010, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019 and 2023. His book, A Descending Spiral: Exposing The Death Penalty In Twelve Essays, was published in Spring 2021 by The New Press.
Troutman Pepper is receiving the 2024 Pro Bono award for their extraordinary initiative in creating The Pepper Center for Public Service. The Pepper Center, created in 2018, is a unique organization established to draw on the talents of the firm’s retired or senior partners and counsel to ensure their continued engagement in wrestling with tough problems facing our communities. It has four areas of focus: public education, civics, voting rights, and immigration. The Pepper Center, led by its founding Executive Director (and former Bar Foundation President), Amy Ginensky, has achieved remarkable success providing legal assistance to asylum seekers, co-created the Law and JusticeMentoring Program (featured at our 2022 Access to Justice Celebration), and has provided legal support and expertise on mattersinvolving voter protection. In addition, Center lawyers meet with national and local leaders and experts to delve deeply into unresolved justice issues to develop innovative approaches and solutions.
The Philadelphia Bar Foundation has only presented its Trailblazer Award three times in its sixty year history. This year we will add another name to that list as we honor the late Professor Frank McClellan with the award which recognizes an extraordinary individual who led the way in creating equal access to justice for all in Philadelphia. Professor McClellan was a highly respected lawyer, civil rights advocate, law professor and author. He was a professor of law at Temple Univesity’s Beasley School of law for over three decades and served as the co-director of the Center for Health, Law, Policy and Practice. In addition to his teaching, Professor McClellan was a member of numerous boards including the AIDS Law Project of Pennsylvania, the American Law Institute, the American Board of Trial Advocates, and the National Institute of Health.
