Each year, we honor members and allies whose work embodies extraordinary commitment to our mission of human rights and the rights of ecosystems over property interests. We’re thrilled to announce this year’s honorees! Learn more about each of them below. CONGRATULATIONS, EVERYONE! 🥳
If you’d like to support the NLG and celebrate our awardees, you can sponsor our 2022 #Law4ThePeople Awards Celebration or place an ad in our Tribute Journal.
You can also join us in celebrating the honorees by attending the Awards Celebration on Thursday, October 13th at 7 PM EST / 4 PM PST and making a donation!
Law for the People Award: Lennox Hinds
Lennox S. Hinds is a Professor Emeritus of Law and former Chair of the Administration of Justice Program at Rutgers University. Before joining Stevens, Hinds and White, PC, Hinds served for many years as National Director of the National Conference of Black Lawyers. He has represented a number of politically unpopular clients, including Assata Shakur (Joanne Chesimard), the New York 8 and victims of police brutality and other governmental lawlessness including COINTELPRO. In addition to his practice as a criminal defense and international human rights lawyer, he was Nelson Mandela’s US attorney and counsel in the US to the Government of South Africa, the African National Congress (ANC) of South Africa and (SWAPO) of Namibia. He is the permanent Representative to the United Nations for the International Association of Democratic Lawyers.
Ernie Goodman Award: John Philo
John Philo is the Executive and Legal Director of the Sugar Law Center for Economic & Social Justice in Detroit, Michigan. He has litigated cases in dozens of states representing low-wage workers and communities against corporations and government officials. His cases have sought to preserve local democracy; combat wage theft; oppose corporate subsidies; promote fair and decent work for all; and to ensure accountability from corporations and all levels of government. John Philo serves on the steering committee of the National Lawyers Guild’s Labor & Employment Committee and is a past president of the Michigan NLG Chapter. His articles have appeared the NLG Review and he is a contributing author to the National Lawyers Guild’s Employee and Union Member Guide to Labor Law. He is a graduate of the St. Louis University School of Law and McGill University’s Faculty of Law.
Legal Worker Award: Zane McNeill
Zane McNeill is a nonbinary activist from Morgantown, WV. He is dedicated to challenging normative narratives and raising historically marginalized voices through archival work and legal advocacy. He has a BA in History and a MA in Political Science and has worked primarily in the field of animal advocacy. He is passionate about increasing diversity, equity, inclusion and justice (DEIJ) in the nonprofit sector, challenging and dismantling carceral and neoliberal logics in animal law, and increasing workplace democracy and labor protections in the animal advocacy field.
Carol Weiss King Award: Anne Pilsbury
Awarded by the National Immigration Project of the NLG
Anne Pilsbury founded Central American Legal Assistance in 1986 in response to the Salvadoran Civil War refugee crisis. Before CALA, she was in private practice in the District of Columbia and Maine doing civil litigation, including a major civil rights Bivens action against the FBI and D.C. police “red squad” for the illegal COINTELPRO program. She has represented thousands of immigrants over her career as Executive Director. She sits on the Board of Directors of Brooklyn Legal Services, Corp. A. She is admitted to the D.C. Bar and is a member of the Bar of US Courts of Appeals for the 2nd Circuit, 5th Circuit, 9th Circuit and the U.S. Supreme Court.
C. B. King Award: Russell Facente
Russell Facente is a 2022 graduate of Sandra Day O’Connor College of Law at Arizona State University, where he helped revive the ASU chapter of NLG and created a Movement Lawyering course. In 2020, Russell spent over 60 days legal observing during uprisings over local and national murders by law enforcement, and as LO Coordinator for the Central Arizona chapter he worked to modernize the LO program’s safety and security protocols. Russell continues to uplift community groups who are central to the movement, supporting their work through know-your-rights trainings and other means.
Daniel Levy Award: Guerline Jozef
Awarded by the National Immigration Project of the NLG
Guerline Jozef is a leading human right advocate who dedicates her life to bringing awareness to issues that affect us all locally and globally such as immigration, domestic violence, child sexual abuse, and other human rights issues.
Ms. Jozef is the co-founder and executive director of Haitian Bridge Alliance (HBA), a US-based nonprofit organization that advocates for fair and humane immigration policies. HBA provides migrants and immigrants with humanitarian, deportation defense, legal, and social services. It has a particular focus on Black immigrants from the Caribbean and Africa, the Haitian community, women and girls, LGBTQIA+ individuals, and survivors of torture and other human rights abuses.
Debra Evenson Award: Jeff Frank
Awarded by the International Committee of the NLG
Jeff Frank provides legal and tax representation for non-profit and tax-exempt organizations and is an international solidarity activist. Jeff has been a member of the International Committee since 2002 and currently serves as a co-chair of the International Committee.
Jeff has worked with the Landless Workers Movement (MST) of Brazil since 2002. In 2009, he became National Coordinator of the Friends of the MST (US) and has continued in that capacity through today. In addition to other activities, the FMST has organized international support for the MST, most recently in two successful campaigns before the Brazilian Supreme Federal Tribunal to extend the moratorium on rural and urban evictions.
Jeff has connected the NLG to people’s law organizations in Brazil, including the National Network of People’s Attorneys, lawyers and law students active in the legal defense of struggles in the countryside; the Brazilian Association of Jurists for Democracy; and Solidarity, Resistance and Hope (SolREsp), formed by the international peasant organization La Via Campesina to provide legal support for rural and peasant organizations.
