Thomson Reuters | Celebrating Truly Super Lawyers

6 Feb 2012

Celebrating Truly Super Lawyers

Caption|REUTERS/Ilya Naymushin Super Lawyers, a Thomson Reuters business, has announced eight recipients of its newly created Pro Bono Award. The award honors legal professionals, students and institutions exemplifying excellence in the practice of law through offering volunteer legal services to the poor, disadvantaged or exploited.

The eight recipients of Super Lawyers first annual Pro Bono Award include practicing attorneys, law firms, law students and law programs. The winners were chosen by a review committee, which evaluated each application based on several factors including legal effort, personal contribution, impact to the law and innovation. Law students and law programs were evaluated on the additional factors of community outreach and leadership.

From providing free legal counsel to Hawaii’s most vulnerable citizens, to combating human trafficking, to aiding Native Americans in drafting wills that adhere to the unique needs and laws governing Indian reservations, the tireless work of each award recipient embodies the very spirit and purpose of pro bono legal service, and the award itself.

Top among the award-winning legal professionals are:

Attorney Paul Alston of Alston Hunt Floyd & Ing in Honolulu is the recipient of the first-place award. He was nominated for his work providing pro bono legal counsel in 2011 in several cases in which he led teams of lawyers from his firm that represented poor and vulnerable citizens in complaints against the State of Hawaii, for infractions such as failing to maintain public housing complexes, failing to provide equal access to healthcare and failing to process food stamp applications in a timely manner.
Law student John Rafferty, of Villanova University in Villanova, Pa. is the recipient of the second-place prize. He witnessed the effects of human trafficking while serving overseas as an officer in the U.S. Navy and since then has dedicated his time and legal talents to anti-trafficking advocacy and training in Ecuador, the Republic of Georgia, Washington D.C. and in his home city with the Philadelphia Anti-Trafficking Coalition.

See the full list of honorees and their work.

In addition to the honor, each winner will receive editorial coverage in a 2012 edition of a Super Lawyers magazine, and a cash prize.

Super Lawyers, is a rating service of outstanding lawyers from more than 70 practice areas who have attained a high degree of peer recognition and professional achievement. The selection process is multiphasic and includes independent research, peer nominations and peer evaluations.The Super Lawyers lists are published in Super Lawyers magazines and in leading city and regional magazines across the country. Super Lawyers magazines also feature editorial profiles of attorneys who embody excellence in the practice of law.