To recognize outstanding commitment to volunteer legal services for the poor and disadvantaged, the Supreme Judicial Court’s Standing Committee on Pro Bono Legal Services is seeking nominations for the 2006 Adams Pro Bono Publico Awards. The deadline for nominations is Friday, April 21, 2006.

         Nominations should be submitted to: Richard McMahon, Esq., The 2006 Adams Pro Bono Publico Awards, c/o New Center for Legal Advocacy, Inc., 18 Main Street Extension, 3rd Floor, Plymouth, MA 02360. For further information, contact Alison Fallon at (508) 746-2777, or by email at: afallon@ncla.net. Nominations submitted in 2005 remain active for consideration in the 2006 Awards program.

         Named in honor of Attorneys John Adams and John Quincy Adams, the Adams Pro Bono Publico Awards honor individual lawyers, law firms, government attorney offices, corporate law departments, and other institutions in the legal profession in Massachusetts that have “enhanced the human dignity of others by improving or delivering volunteer legal service to our Commonwealth’s poor and disadvantaged.”

          The Standing Committee on Pro Bono Legal Services will select awardees from among those who have excelled in providing volunteer services in one or more of the following ways: (1) volunteer participation in an activity or pro bono program which resulted in satisfying previously unmet needs or in extending services to undeserved segments of the population; (2) successfully litigated pro bono cases that favorably affected the provision of other services to the poor; (3) successfully achieved legislation that contributed substantially to legal services for the poor.

         Last year, awards were presented to Mark I. Berson, president of Levy, Winer & Berson, P.C. in Greenfield; Retired Probate & Family Court Judge Edward M. Ginsburg, founder of Senior Partners for Justice; and the Boston law firm Mintz, Levin, Cohn, Ferris, Glovsky and Popeo, P.C., with special recognition to Attorneys Susan J. Cohen and Grant Sovern for their work on behalf of the Political Asylum/Immigration Representation (PAIR) project.

          Established in August 1999, the Standing Committee on Pro Bono Legal Services works to promote volunteer legal work in Massachusetts to help people of limited means who are in need of legal representation, in accordance with SJC Rule 6.1, Voluntary Pro Bono Publico Service (“for the public good”). Attorney Mary Ryan of Nutter, McClennen & Fish LLP chairs the Committee.