Dorsey Award Recipients

2024 Award

The 2024 Dorsey Award winner is Amrutha Jindal, Executive Director, Lone Star Defenders. In 2021, under Operation Lone Star, the State of Texas executed memoranda of understanding with over 100 ranchers, allowing the Texas Department of Public Safety to arrest immigrants, largely for criminal trespass. This resulted in an enormous increase in the number of criminal defendants needing representation in rural counties completely unequipped for the massive caseload increase. Amrutha Jindal stepped up and launched Lone Star Defenders, swiftly creating an 80-attorney public defender system that guaranteed quality representation for thousands. 

Past Recipients

• 2024 Amrutha Jindal, TX
• 2023 Lisa Schreibersdorf, NY
• 2022  Alan Mills, Chicago, IL
• 2021 Ann Marie Miller, Pablo, MT
• 2020 Casey N. Payton, U.S. Virgin Islands
• 2019 LaToya Bell, Houston County, GA
• 2018 Deborah Katz Levi, Baltimore, MD
• 2017 Michael Barrett, Columbia, MO
• 2016 Kevin D. O'Connell, New York, NY
• 2015 Norman Metzger, Indianapolis, IN
• 2014 Harrison D. McIver III, Memphis, TN
• 2013 Steven Gottlieb, Atlanta, GA
• 2012 Seymour W. James, Jr., New York, NY
• 2011 Toby J. Rothschild, Los Angeles, CA
• 2010 Kenneth Babcock, Santa Ana, CA
• 2009 Nicholas Chiarkas, Madison, WI
• 2008 Jeremy Lane, Minneapolis, MN and Julie Levin, Kansas City, MO
  
• 2007 Lucien B. Campbell, San Antonio, TX
• 2006 Jeff Adachi, San Francisco, CA and Lawrence M. Sullivan, Wilmington, DE
• 2005 Bryan D. Shaha, Greeley, CO
• 2004 Martha B. Dicus, Charleston, SC
• 2003 Robert C. Oberbillig, Des Moines, IA
• 2002 James A. Wayne, Sr., Baton Rouge, LA
• 2001 Jonathan D. Asher, Denver, CO and Joseph W. DuRocher, Orlando, FL
• 2000 Robert A. Bertisch, Palm Beach Gardens, FL
• 1999 Robert Bensing, Atlanta, GA (presented posthumously)
• 1998 Judy Clarke, Spokane, WA
• 1997 Daniel T. Goyette, Louisville, KY and Archibald R. Murray, New York, NY
• 1996 Katharine Krause, Los Angeles, CA (presented posthumously)