Harrison Tweed Current Award Winners

The ABA Standing Committee on Legal Aid
and Indigent Defendants
& The National Legal Aid and Defender Association

Congratulate the Winners of the 2012 Harrison Tweed Award!

The San Mateo County (California) Bar Association
and
the San Antonio Bar Association

The San Mateo County Bar Association and the San Antonio Bar Association will each receive a 2012 Harrison Tweed Award for achievement in preserving and increasing access to legal services for the poor. The award winning activities of each of these bar associations demonstrate the wide range of activities that bars engage in to promote access to justice.

The San Mateo County Bar Association is being recognized for the Private Defender Program, its model assigned counsel program that is the indigent defense system for the county.  The San Antonio Bar Association is being honored for its Community Justice Program, which provides neighborhood-based legal services to the poor in a wide range of areas and enables lawyers, judges, court reporters, court clerks and interpreters to render volunteer services.

The award, given annually by the American Bar Association Standing Committee on Legal Aid and Indigent Defendants and the National Legal Aid and Defender Association, will be presented during the ABA Annual Meeting in Chicago on Friday, August 3rd, at a joint luncheon of the National Conference of Bar Presidents, National Association of Bar Executives and National Conference of Bar Foundations.

The Harrison Tweed Award was created in 1956 to recognize the extraordinary achievements of state and local bar associations that develop or significantly expand projects or programs to increase access to civil legal services for poor persons or criminal defense services for indigents.