Symposium and Celebration of the National Equal Justice Library’s Arrival at Georgetown Law and the Library’s Acceptance of the Papers of Gary Bellow

Georgetown University Law Center

Gewirz Student Center - 12th Floor

120 F Street, NW

Washington, D.C. 20001

1:30 – 4:30 p.m.
Gideon and Katrina: Legal Aid and Defender Programs at a Crossroads
Martha Bergmark, Director, Mississippi Center for Justice
Helaine Barnett, President, Legal Services Corporation
Jo-Ann Wallace, President and CEO, National Legal Aid & Defender Association
Jonathan Smith, Director, Legal Aid Society of the District of Columbia
Esther Lardent, President, Pro Bono Institute
Norman Lefstein, Professor, Indiana School of Law at Indianapolis
Ab Currie, Principal Researcher, Access to Justice and Legal Aid, Department of Justice, Canada
Janell Smith, Student Hurricane Network
Peter Edelman, Professor, Georgetown University Law Center

4:30 – 6:00 p.m.
Commemorating the History Preserved at the National Equal Justice Library (NEJL)
With NEJL board chair Jack Londen presiding, speakers will introduce the NEJL at Georgetown, officially accept the papers of pioneer legal aid lawyer and Harvard Professor Gary Bellow from his widow, Harvard lecturer Jeanne Bellow, and present the Reginald Heber Smith Book Award and the Edgar and Jean Cahn Article Awards to three scholars who have written outstanding works about civil legal aid or indigent criminal defense.

The NEJL is the nation’s first institution established to commemorate the legal profession’s history of providing counsel to those unable to afford it. Georgetown Law acquired the NEJL collection in 2006.

Media interested in attending should e-mail mediarelations@law.georgetown.edu.