The ABA Center on Children and the Law is pleased to announce the recipients of the 2022 Mark Hardin Award for Child Welfare Legal Scholarship and Systems Change are the Honorable Ernestine Gray and Professor Martin Guggenheim.
Honorable Ernestine Gray
Judge Gray was first elected to the Orleans Parish Juvenile Court on November 6, 1984, where she has served with distinction for 35 years. She has served as the Chair of the ABA Commission on Youth at Risk for the last three years and has been an actively engaged member of the Commission and the ABA for decades. Judge Gray is past president of the National Council of Juvenile and Family Court Judges, National CASA, the local YMCA and Volunteers of America Boards of Directors. Since her retirement she has served as the judicial fellow for the Pelican Center for Children and Families, a nonprofit organization dedicated to improving the quality of legal representation for children and providing interdisciplinary training and education to child welfare practitioners.
Judge Gray has devoted her entire career to serving children, youth and families and she has fundamentally reshaped the children’s law field within her own courtroom and well-beyond. She brings qualities of excellence and integrity to everything she does, and she has had the “intellectual courage” to push all members of our children’s law community to think deeper and harder about the work we do and the individuals we serve. As one of her nominators shared, “Judge Gray has been and continues to be a warrior even in her retirement for the interest of children and families. Her experience and knowledge is only the foundation of her committed efforts. The children and families of Louisiana are being better served as a result of her contributions which includes serving on the bench for many decades.”
In 2019, Judge Gray shepherded the ABA’s policy on Rights to Family Integrity and Family Connection. In 2020, she actively participated in development and implementation of the ABA’s policy on Engagement in Youth Legal System Reform, and in 2022, she led the Commission’s work introducing the Presumption of Presence in Court Policy. Each of these policies on child and youth law passed before the ABA House of Delegates with resounding support under Judge Gray’s leadership.
In addition to her leadership on the bench and her national voice helping to reshape the children’s law field, Judge Gray is, in a nutshell, a “Doer.” She is truly an inspiration.
Professor Martin Guggenheim
Marty is the Fiorello LaGuardia Professor of Clinical Law at NYU School of Law, where he coteaches the Family Defense Clinic. He is retiring from that position after 49 years. He is the co-chair of the ABA National Alliance for Parent Representation Steering Committee and has been the inspiration for the Parent Representation Movement. He is a well-known scholar in the area of children and the law.
One of his nominators said: “Marty exemplifies the values Mark Hardin served throughout his career, blending a fierce determination to push for change on behalf of children and families with personal qualities that inspire the best in those around him. Marty has been a leading scholar in the field of children's rights for over forty years, a pre-eminent practitioner who has argued leading cases before the nation's highest courts, a teacher who has mentored countless students who have gone on to become leaders in the field themselves, and a key voice in the national discussion on how to improve our child welfare system.”
Another nominator, a former student, shared: “As I have said many times before despite its causing Professor Guggenheim some embarrassment, he was one of the great teachers of my life. At a pivotal time in my work, his scholarship and classroom skills reminded me that child advocates must be family advocates, and that sustainable child welfare reform requires a deep and abiding commitment to strengthening and honoring families.”
One colleague said: "I met Marty after having worked in child welfare for more than 15 years, and he changed my entire perspective in less than 15 seconds. I take his words with me wherever I go and quote them to every client I represent, every professional I teach and every official I attempt to persuade to help improve the lives of the children and families we all serve."
“Marty has an almost naive faith in the righteousness of his life’s work and that energy and enthusiasm is infectious.”
The Mark Hardin Award will be presented to Judge Gray on March 21, 2022, at a special ceremony at the Louisiana Supreme Court. The award will be presented to Professor Guggenheim on April 7, 2022, at the ABA Center on Children and the Law National Parent Representation Conference in Virginia. The award is named for the longtime director of child welfare at the Center on Children and the Law in honor of his history as an early innovator in that field. The award is given to an attorney, law professor, judge or legislator who has shown achievement and commitment to legal scholarship and systems change, such as authoring child welfare legislation, leading a child welfare agency through major system change or having a key role in litigation that resulted in major system change.