Thursday, June 1, at The Grammy Museum in DTLA
LOS ANGELES – The ACLU Foundation of Southern California will honor individuals and pro bono counsel, who have directly contributed to the organization's legal and advocacy efforts across the southland, at its Advocates for Justice reception on Thursday, June 1 at 5:30 p.m. at The Grammy Museum in Los Angeles.
Honorees include law firms and individuals who fought for equitable redistricting, immigrants’ rights, and transformational Sheriff accountability measures.
“We are incredibly grateful for the attorneys and support staff at honoree firms, who devote thousands of hours of work, at no cost to the ACLU SoCal, on cases that have tremendous impact on voting rights, immigrants’ rights, and equitable redistricting,” said Hector Villagra, executive director of the ACLU SoCal.
Actor and activist Kendrick Sampson will also be honored, for his work to empower marginalized communities and shine a light on issues of inequity. Sampson is best known for his performances on the Vampire Diaries, Gracepoint, How to Get Away with Murder, White Famous, Supernatural, The Flash, and his portrayal as Nathan in HBO’s critically acclaimed, Emmy nominated Insecure. Kendrick co-founded BLD PWR as a call to action and invitation to others to join him in taking a stand for social change.
The full list of awardees is below:
- Lauren Keller, Shane M. Shelley, and the law firm Morrison & Foerster, LLP will receive the Pro Bono Award for their unstinting support in a myriad of ways to the work of the ACLU SoCal, and for providing tax consultation to our clients in settlement negotiations.
- Moe Keshavarzi and the law firm Sheppard Mullin Richter & Hampton LLP will receive the Voting Rights Award for their expertise and avid partnership in our redistricting litigation in Riverside County.
- Inland Empire United will receive the Voting Rights Award for their work throughout Riverside and San Bernardino Counties, ensuring the adoption of more representative and equitable maps this past redistricting cycle.
- Hunter V. Armour, Madelyn Chen, Anjan Choudhury, Jacob Kreilkamp, Giovanni Saarman González, Brandon R. Teachout, the law firm Munger, Tolles & Olson LLP, UC Irvine School of Law Immigrant Rights Clinic, Annie Lai, Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights of Los Angeles (CHIRLA), and the Inland Coalition for Immigrant Justice (ICIJ) will receive the Immigrants’ Rights Award for the extraordinary time and effort that counsel and plaintiffs have dedicated to Kidd v. Mayorkas, securing important legal victories, collecting and disclosing substantial information, and for developing an innovative “know your rights” campaign to educate and empower communities.
- Osny Sorto-Vasquez Kidd will receive the Advocate for Justice Award for being the plaintiff and public face of Kidd v Mayorkas, the ICE police impersonation case, recounting his story and trauma countless times, and for willingly investing his time in the pursuit of an end to this unscrupulous practice.
- Stephanie Luna and Helen Jones Phillips will receive the Advocate for Justice Award for their powerful and dedicated commitment to the campaign to “Check the Sheriff” and for Measure A, strengthening sheriff accountability in Los Angeles and serving as a model for other counties statewide.
- Evan Minton will receive the Advocate for Justice Award for his time and energy invested as a plaintiff in more than four years of litigation, for the unique contributions he has made to the conversation about fighting the use of religious beliefs as an excuse to discriminate in health care, and for his service as a community leader, always encouraging colleagues to focus on the intersectional needs of the most marginalized members of the TGI community.
- Kendrick Sampson will receive the Advocate for Justice Award for being a stalwart champion of the ACLU SoCal’s mission and harnessing the influence of culture and entertainment to build power and catalyze change.