For Immediate Release
September 5, 2006

Contact:
Kara Tershel, (202) 662-9500

WASHINGTON, D.C. - Georgetown University Law Center is pleased to announce that its Edward Bennett Williams Law Library has acquired the books, papers, oral histories, and other materials of the National Equal Justice Library (NEJL), the nation's first institution established to commemorate the legal profession’s history of providing counsel to those unable to afford it. 

Created nearly two decades ago, the NEJL honors those who have worked to provide equal justice for all.  Its collection includes a sixteenth century book believed to be the first compilation of English statutes, including one enacted in 1495 which created a right to counsel in civil cases for the indigent, and a 1993 videotaped interview with members of the pro bono team that represented Clarence Gideon in the 1963 landmark Supreme Court case of Gideon v. Wainwright, which upheld the constitutional right to counsel in criminal cases.  The NEJL also contains a growing collection of materials on access to justice in countries other than the United States. 

"Georgetown Law Center, located only a few blocks from the Congress, the U.S. Supreme Court, and the D.C. Courts, is an ideal place for policy makers and others interested in civil legal aid and indigent criminal defense to make use of the NEJL," said Jack Londen, NEJL President. 

"Georgetown Law was a pioneer in providing access to justice, through our clinical programs, fellowships, and Office of Public Interest and Community Service (OPICS), as well as our early association with bar leaders committed to this cause," noted Georgetown Law Librarian Robert Oakley.  "We are a natural home for these historic documents; they will be put to good use by our faculty, who continue in the founding traditions of the civil rights and access to justice movements."

"Our hope is that the collection and the scholarship it will foster will inspire future generations of Georgetown lawyers to consider serving their communities through public interest and pro bono work," added Georgetown Law Dean T. Alexander Aleinikoff.

The NEJL is co-sponsored by the American Bar Association, the American Association of Law Libraries and the National Legal Aid and Defender Association.

About Georgetown University Law Center 

Georgetown University Law Center is one of the world's premier law schools. It has the largest full-time faculty in the nation and is pre-eminent in several areas, including constitutional, international, tax and clinical law. Drawing on its Jesuit heritage, it has a strong tradition of public service and is dedicated to the principle that law is but a means, justice is the end. With this principle in mind, Georgetown Law has built an environment that cultivates an exchange of ideas and the pursuit of academic excellence. It brings together an extraordinarily varied group of teachers, scholars and practitioners, as well as an outstanding student body.

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