Past Recipients
‹ Past Winners
In 1990, the American Bar Association Young Lawyers Division (YLD) in conjunction with the Center on Children and the Law established the Child Advocacy Award to honor lawyers for distinguished service on behalf of children. The award recognizes the contributions to the legal profession by child advocates who have actively labored on behalf of children. The award celebrates the often unheralded service that child advocates bring to children and the legal profession.
2009-2010 Winners
Each year two lawyers are honored for their distinguished service on behalf of children. Award recipients are selected based on the individual's personal achievement and commitment to child advocacy. This year’s recipients are:Young Lawyer Category: Angela Ciolfi, Legal Director of JustChildren, Charlottesville, Virginia
Lawyer Category: Alfreda D. Coward, Partner with Coward & Coward, P.A., Ft. Lauderdale, Florida
Angela A. Ciolfi
| Angela Ciolfi is the Legal Director of JustChildren, a program of the Legal Aid Justice Center that focuses on improving Virginia's public education, juvenile justice, and foster care systems. Her work for the program as a law student earned her the Oliver White Hill Award from the Virginia State Bar in 2003. She joined JustChildren as a Powell Fellow in 2004 after clerking for U.S. District Judge Reginald C. Lindsay. Angela is a graduate of The College of William and Mary and University of Virginia School of Law, where she was a member of the Virginia Law Review, was elected to the Raven Society and Order of the Coif, and won the VTLA Trial Advocacy Award, James C. Slaughter Honor Award, and the Pro Bono Award. At JustChildren, Angela has worked with a team of attorneys and organizers to develop and implement innovative strategies for strengthening the educational rights and opportunities of all students, including students with disabilities and students who are incarcerated, through policy advocacy and litigation. She has also provided individual legal representation to children and families in the areas of special education, student discipline, enrollment of special populations, dispositional advocacy for court-involved youth, conditions of confinement, and post-conviction relief for serious youth offenders and provided trainings, advocacy materials, and technical assistance on education law to lawyers and service providers statewide. Angela is also a Lecturer at the University of Virginia School of Law where she teaches a seminar on Special Education Law and supervises students in the Child Advocacy Clinic. |
Alfreda D. Coward | Alfreda D. Coward is a partner of Coward & Coward, P.A., a law firm in Ft. Lauderdale, Florida. She practices with her sister, Kimberly D. Coward, primarily representing indigent clients in the areas of criminal law and family law. During her fifteen years as an attorney, Ms. Coward has had well over 100 jury trials. Some of these trials were recorded and aired on Court TV, MSNBC and NBC Dateline. In addition to Coward & Coward, Ms. Coward currently serves as the co-founder and executive director of One Voice Children’s Law Center. One Voice Children’s Law Center is a non-profit organization that represents kids that have pending matters in the dependency, delinquency and/or educational systems. She also served as an adjunct professor at FIU College of Law teaching educational advocacy. Ms. Coward is a graduate of the University of Florida, where she received her Juris Doctorate degree in 1995 and her Bachelor of Science Degree in Psychology in 1992. Ms. Coward is a member of The Florida Bar. She is also admitted to practice in the United States District Courts for the Northern, Middle and Southern Districts of Florida. |
Past Recipients
H. J. DAVID AMBROZ, Los Angeles City College Foundation, Los Angeles, CA
PAMELA B. BANKERT, Lawson, Weitzen & Bankert, Brewster, MA
ANDREW BLOCK, The Just Children Program of the Legal Aid Justice Center, Charlottesville, VA
GAIL CHANG BOHR, Children's Law Center of Minnesota, St. Paul, MN
HONORABLE FREDERICA BRENNEMAN, State Judge Trial Referee, Hartford, CT
GLORIA M. BRUZZANO, Department of Education, New York, NY
FRANK P. CERVONE, Support Center for Child Advocates, Philadelphia, PA
DAVID COLE, Dallas Count District Attorney’s Office, Dallas, TX
PETER DAUGHERTY, Butler, Wooten, Overby, Cheely, Pearson & Fryhofer, Columbus, GA
ANTHONY DE MARCO, Suffolk University Law School, Boston, MA
BARBARA J. ELIAS-PERCIFUL, Texas Lawyers for Children, Dallas, TX
ABIGAIL ENGLISH, National Center for Youth Law, Chapel Hill, NC
KENNETH ENGRIGHT, Hawaii Attorney General’s Office, Honolulu, HI
ANA ESPANA, San Diego County Dept. of the Public Defender, San Diego, CA
MICHAEL FINLEY, Youth Law Center, Washington, DC
REBECCA GUDEMAN, Public Counsel Law Center, Los Angeles, CA
STEVE HILTZ, Children’s Attorneys Project (CAP) of Clark County Legal Services, Las Vegas, NV
SCOTT HOLLANDER, KidsVoice, Pittsburgh, PA
MICHELE JOHNSON, Tennessee Justice Center, Nashville, TN
MARIE KENYON, Catholic Legal Assistance Ministry, St. Louis, MO
MOLLY LANGER, Guardian Ad Litem Program, Tampa, FL
KATHERINE LOCKER, Legal Aid Society, New York, NY
PEGGY MAINOR, Baltimore Child Abuse Center, Baltimore, MD
PHILLIP (JAY) MCCARTHY, Hufford, Hortsman, Monginni, Parnell & McCarty, P.C., Flagstaff, AZ
MARTIN N. OLSEN, Olsen and Olsen, Salt Lake City, UT
AMY M. PELLMAN, The Alliance for Children’s Rights, Los Angeles, CA
ERIK PITCHAL, Children's Rights, New York, NY
KIMBERELY SHELLMAN, Fulton County Children's Advocacy Center, Roswell, GA
SHARI SHINK, Rocky Mountain Children's Law Center, Denver, CO
HONORABLE KRISTIN SWEENEY, Juvenile Court Judge, Cuyahoga County, Cleveland, OH
MARVIN VENTRELL, National Association of Counsel for Children, Denver, CO
SARAH J. VESECKY, Children's Law Center, Los Angeles, CA
LEECIA WELCH, National Center for Youth Law, Oakland, CA
ROBERT WOLF, Wolf, Block, Schorr and Solis-Cohen, Philadelphia, PA
CECILIA ZALKIND, Association for Children of New Jersey, Newark, NJ
CHRISTINA ZAWISZA, Children First Project, Legal Services of Greater Miami, Miami, FL
