Release date: Jan. 9, 2007
Contact: Elaine Justice at 404-727-0643 or elaine.justice@emory.edu

Emory Law School Honors Public Interest Attorneys Feb. 13

Four outstanding attorneys who have demonstrated a strong commitment to public interest law will be honored by Emory Law School at its 11th annual EPIC Inspiration Awards. The ceremony and reception will be held at 6:30 p.m. Tuesday, Feb. 13, in the law school's Tull Auditorium, 1301 Clifton Rd., on the Emory campus.

This year's recipients are: Steve Gottlieb, executive director of the Atlanta Legal Aid Society; Phyllis J. Holmen, executive director of Georgia Legal Services Program;Joseph R. Bankoff, president/chief executive officer of the Woodruff Arts Center; and Susan H. Colussy, program director for Immigration Services, Catholic Charities.

EPIC (Emory Public Interest Committee) is a student-run organization that promotes law in the public interest, encourages and helps Emory law students to get jobs in public interest law practice, administers and supports public interest programs at the law school, and promotes the professional responsibility of lawyers and law students to make legal services more accessible.

"The Inspiration Awards are the annual celebration of EPIC's effort to redefine the legal practice as a profession of service," said EPIC President William Bradford Drummond.

The awards ceremony is the major fund-raiser for EPIC. Donations are used to provide stipends for law students who pursue summer internships with public interest agencies. Donations are accepted at various levels with a minimum of $35 requested. Inquiries about contributions and reservations should be directed to Sue McAvoy, Emory's public interest adviser, at 404-727-5503 or smcavoy@law.emory.edu.

Last year EPIC raised nearly $89,000 which, when matched by the school and other donors, totaled $187,00 and provided 35 grants. Students worked at agencies such as the Pro Bono Partnership of Atlanta, Cambridge Human Rights Commission in Cambridge, Mass., and the Georgia Innocence Project.

Gottlieb, who will receive the Lifetime Commitment to Public Service Award, has spent his entire legal career representing people with low incomes. As director of the Atlanta Legal Aid Society since 1980, Gottlieb has spearheaded increased services to particularly vulnerable populations, such as seniors, those in nursing homes and personal care homes.

Under Gottlieb's leadership, the society also has created the AIDS Legal Project, begun a Mental Health and Disability Rights Project, started the Home Defense Program (to serve homeowners subject to abusive lending practices), developed the Hispanic Outreach Program, started a TeamChild Project (representing children needing special education), and created a Grandparents Project (helping grandparents adopt grandchildren they are raising). The society's most recent project, the Health Law Partnership (HeLP), is a collaboration with Georgia State School of Law and Children's Healthcare of Atlanta to represent patients at children's hospitals and their families.

Gottlieb received his undergraduate degree from Hamilton College and law degree from the University of Pennsylvania Law School.

Holmen also will be honored with the Lifetime Commitment to Public Service Award. Through the Georgia Legal Services Program (GLSP), which she joined as a staff attorney in 1974 and served almost continuously until becoming executive director in 1990, Holmen has spent her entire career in public service.

In addition to her GLSP work, which provides legal aid to rural, low-income Georgians, Holmen is a member of the civil justice committee of the Supreme Court of Georgia, the American Bar Association's President's Task Force on Access to Civil Justice, and the executive committee of the board of governors for the State Bar of Georgia. She is a founding member of the Women's Policy Group, and serves as special counsel to the board of directors for the National Senior Citizens Law Center.

Holmen holds both undergraduate and law degrees from the University of Illinois.

Bankoff, who will receive the Outstanding Leadership in the Public Interest Award, is the president and CEO of Woodruff Arts Center. He devoted much of his 25-year legal career to nationwide litigation in patent, technology and content related disputes at King & Spalding. He has used his expertise to negotiate the television rights agreements on behalf of the Atlanta Committee of the Olympic Games, has served on the board of the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra since 1996, and the Metropolitan Atlanta Arts and Culture Coalition since 2001. He also is a founding member of the Georgia First Amendment Foundation, and still serves on the organization's board of trustees.

Bankoff holds his undergraduate degree from Purdue University and law degree from University of Illinois.

Colussy, who will receive an award for her Unsung Devotion to Those Most in Need, has spent nearly her entire career as program director for immigration services at Catholic Charities Atlanta. In addition to her work, she has given her time to speak at several immigration law conferences and has served on the Atlanta chapter of American Immigration Lawyers Association's Pro Bono, Asylum, EOIR Liaison and CIS Liaison committees. She is the recipient of the Phoenix Award, Spann Pro Bono Award, Sam Williamson Mentoring Award and the Atlanta Bar Association's Liberty Bell Award.

She holds a bachelor's degree from Davis and Elkins College and law degree from Georgia State University College of Law.

Emory University is one of the nation's leading private research universities and a member of the Association of American Universities. Known for its demanding academics, outstanding undergraduate college of arts and sciences, highly ranked professional schools and state-of-the-art research facilities, Emory is ranked as one of the country's top 20 national universities by U.S. News & World Report. In addition to its nine schools, the university encompasses The Carter Center, Yerkes National Primate Research Center and Emory Healthcare, the state's largest and most comprehensive health care system.

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