The 2025 Volunteer Recognition & Awards Event will be held on Thursday, September 18th, at Crowell & Moring LLP in Washington, DC. Read below for more event details!
Events
2025 Volunteer Recognition & Awards Event
September 18, 2025 | Washington, DC
Event Details and Tickets
Date: September 18, 2025
Time: 5-8 p.m. ET
- Cocktail reception 5-6 p.m.
- Awards program 6-8 p.m.
Location: Crowell & Moring LLP, 1001 Pennsylvania Ave NW, Washington, DC 20004
Tickets: Standard tickets to the program are $25 each. Project supporters may choose to purchase premium tickets for $50 or $100 which include extra benefits including recognition in the program book and a Project tote bag. All proceeds from ticket sales go directly to supporting the Project's mission.
Keynote Speaker
The Project is honored to welcome Christina Swarns as the keynote speaker for the 2025 Volunteer Recognition & Awards Event. Ms. Swarns is the Executive Director of the Innocence Project. She previously served as the president and attorney-in-charge of the Office of the Appellate Defender, Inc. (OAD), one of New York City’s oldest institutional providers of indigent appellate defense representation; as the litigation director for the NAACP Legal Defense & Educational Fund, Inc. (LDF), America’s premier legal organization fighting for racial justice; as a supervising assistant federal defender in the capital habeas corpus unit of the Philadelphia Community Defender Office; and as a staff attorney for the Legal Aid Society’s Criminal Defense division in New York. Ms. Swarns argued, and won, Buck v. Davis, a challenge to the introduction of explicitly racially biased evidence in a Texas death penalty case, in the United States Supreme Court. She was the only Black woman to argue in the 2016 Supreme Court term, and is one of the few Black women to have argued before the nation’s highest court. Ms. Swarns earned a J.D. from the University of Pennsylvania Law School and a B.A. from Howard University.
Award Recipients
Every fall, the Project celebrates volunteer lawyers at its Volunteer Recognition & Awards Event. During the event, the Project presents awards to pro bono law firms and individual attorneys that have shown exceptional commitment to excellence in capital defense.
Exceptional Service Award
Pro bono firms are nominated by their colleagues for exceptional service to death row prisoners and honored with the Exceptional Service Award.
This year we are proud to recognize two exceptional pro bono law firms with this award:
Bradley Arant Boult Cummings LLP
Vorys, Sater, Seymour and Pease LLP
Both have shown outstanding commitment to representing death-sentenced prisoners, often in the face of overwhelming odds, and have made a lasting impact on the lives of their pro bono clients and on public awareness of issues in the death penalty system.
John Paul Stevens Guiding Hand of Counsel Award
The Project recognizes the extraordinary efforts of individual lawyers with the John Paul Stevens Guiding Hand of Counsel Award, which was first presented to Justice Stevens in 2011. The Project recognizes pro bono attorneys and full-time capital defenders and public interest lawyers in alternating years.
We are proud to present this year’s award to capital defender Ruth Friedman.
Ruth Friedman has dedicated her legal career to providing exceptional representation to people sentenced to death. She has been the Director of the Federal Capital Habeas Project since 2006, where she spearheaded the efforts that resulted in President Biden granting clemency to 37 of the 40 men on federal death row in late 2024. Previously, Ruth represented individuals on death row as an attorney at the Southern Center for Human Rights and the Equal Justice Initiative. She joins an esteemed group of attorneys who have received this award in recognition of their remarkable and inspirational commitment to their death-sentenced clients and their lasting impact on death penalty law.
Sponsorship
Sponsorship of this event not only helps us honor the incredible contributions of pro bono lawyers, it is also a lifeline to the Project, providing essential funding that allows us to continue our mission.
Visit our sponsorship page to learn more about sponsorship opportunities and benefits. For more information, please contact Project Director Emily Olson-Gault at [email protected].