Past Access to Justice Award Winners

The Janice M. Holder Award

This award recognizes an individual who has made significant contributions to expanding Access to Justice in Tennessee. The recipient of this award is someone who has advanced the quality of justice statewide by ensuring that the legal system is open and available to all.  This Access to Justice Award is named in honor of Justice Janice M. Holder who personifies the qualities that this Award recognizes.  She served as the first female chief justice of the Tennessee Supreme Court,  is a passionate leader in Tennessee’s Access to Justice initiative, a courageous champion of the rights of the historically marginalized, and a dedicated servant to the people of this state.

Past Award Recipients include:

2014                George T. "Buck" Lewis

2015                David R. Yoder

2016                Jim Barry & Sharon Ryan

The B. Riney Green Award

This award recognizes and emphasizes the value the access to justice community has for a particular kind of accomplishment – one that promotes inter-program cooperation and strengthens access to justice across the state. In the late 1990s B. Riney Green, a Nashville attorney, relentlessly led Tennessee’s effort to prevent the U.S. House and Senate from adopting provisions that would reduce funding to legal services and increase restrictions on legal aid programs. This award is named to honor his contribution at a critical time in the history of legal services in Tennessee and the nation.

Past Award Recipients include:

1999                Bonnie King, Gloria Samuels & Christine Wolfe

2000                Linda Seely & Patti George 

2001                Stewart Clifton, Bill Haley & Mike Murphy 

2002                Pat Mock 

2003                Doug Blaze 

2004                Mary Michelle Gillum 

2005                Jennifer Jean Rosenbaum & Steve Xanthopoulos     

2006                Sherry Wilds 

2007                Frank Cantrell 

2008                Pam Ford Wright & Bill Bush 

2009                Adinah Robertson 

2010                David Tarpley  

2011                Beth Bates & Russ Overby

2012                Margaret Behm

2013                Gordon Bonnyman & Harrison McIver

2014                Theresa Vay-Smith

2015                Lenny Croce

2016                Craig Barnes & Russell Fowler

New Advocate of the Year Award

This award is recognizes a specific kind of accomplishment: affirmative, creative, effective advocacy (litigation or other activities). It seeks to recognize those who use their legal skills in an active, creative way that produces outstanding benefits for individual clients and the communities in which they live.

Past Award Recipients include:

2006                Sharmila Murphy

2007                Dawn Gerhardt

2008                No Award Given

2009                Craig Barnes & Spring Miller

2010                Katie Evans & Chris Coleman

2011                Shayla Purifoy

2012                Adrienne Kittos

2013                Charity Miles Williams & Emily O'Donnell

2014                Charlie McDaniel

2015                Robert Downs

2016                Zac Oswald  

Return to the Access to Justice Awards page.

Return to the Equal Justice University homepage.