CHICAGO, Oct. 11, 2017 — Alphonse A. Gerhardstein will receive a 2017 Difference Makers Award at a luncheon during the GPSolo 2017 Solo & Small Firm Summit on Friday, Oct. 20, in St. Paul, Minn. The Making a Difference by Breaking Barriers award, presented by the American Bar Association Solo, Small Firm and General Practice Division, recognizes an attorney, living or deceased, who broke barriers for gender, color, disabilities or sexual orientation.
October 11, 2017
Alphonse A. Gerhardstein recipient of the 2017 GPSolo Making a Difference by Breaking Barriers Award
Gerhardstein is a partner in the Cincinnati law firm of Gerhardstein & Branch Co., which focuses on civil rights cases including race, gender, sexual orientation and disability discrimination in housing and employment; prisoner rights; police misconduct; voting rights and reproductive health issues. Gerhardstein was lead counsel in Obergefell v. Hodges, the 2015 case in which the U.S. Supreme Court established marriage equality for same-sex couples in all 50 states.
He was lead counsel on a class action that reformed Ohio’s juvenile prisons and was lead counsel for the plaintiffs in the class action lawsuit that resulted in Cincinnati’s Collaborative Agreement, which has been cited as a national model for police reform.
Gerhardstein is the founder of the Ohio Justice and Policy Center and a past board member of the Ohio Association for Justice. He is a frequent lecturer to professional and general audiences on civil rights topics, including appearances on CBS, NBC and NPR news programs.
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