Press Release  Supreme Judicial Court Pro Bono Committee Honors Attorneys and a Recent Law School Graduate with Awards for Pro Bono Work

BOSTON, MA — At a ceremony today in the Seven Justice Courtroom of the John Adams Courthouse, Supreme Judicial Court Justice Kimberly S. Budd presented Adams Pro Bono Publico Awards to three attorneys and a recent law school graduate in recognition of distinguished service and outstanding commitment to providing pro bono legal services for those in need. The annual awards are named in honor of John Adams and John Quincy Adams. 

Selected by the SJC's Standing Committee on Pro Bono Legal Services, the following received awards:          

• David G. Fromm, for his consistent dedication and excellence as a pro bono volunteer in the Hampden County Legal Clinic's District Court Lawyer for the Day Program, where he has appeared nearly every week since his initial shift in January 2017 and assisted more than 300 individuals with a variety of legal issues, especially consumer debt cases;
• John Taylor Hand, for over twenty years of sustained and effective pro bono work on immigration cases including, in particular, over 5,000 hours of advocacy on behalf of asylum seekers at the Community Legal Services and Counseling Center; and
• Alec J. Zadek, for his many years of ground-breaking pro bono work on behalf of victims of sex trafficking and domestic violence, including his leadership in developing and successfully advocating for passage of legislation that streamlines the process for sex trafficking victims to vacate their related convictions for prostitution or drug possession;

with a special student award to:

• Amy Elizabeth Volz, a 2018 graduate of Harvard Law School, for her extensive activities in the field of immigration and human rights while she was a student, including devoting hundreds of hours to advocating on behalf of immigrants and refugees with the Harvard Immigration and Refugee Clinical Program and the Harvard Immigration Project, for which she also served as co-president, founding another student group -- the Immigration Response Initiative, and participating in a number of related litigation projects.       

Certificates were also presented to those listed on the SJC's Pro Bono Honor Roll. The Honor Roll each year recognizes law firms, solo practitioners, in-house corporate counsel offices, government legal offices, non-profit organizations and law school faculties that certify that they have performed a minimum number of hours of approved pro bono legal services during the previous calendar year, and law students who have done so during their law school careers.

The SJC's Standing Committee on Pro Bono Legal Services works to promote volunteer legal work in Massachusetts to help people of limited means in need of legal representation, in accordance with SJC Rule 6.1. The awards ceremony is one of many activities celebrating and building support for pro bono legal work in Massachusetts during the month of October, a month officially proclaimed Pro Bono Month by Governor Charlie Baker.

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