Past Recipients of the Fay Stender Award

CWL has presented the Fay Stender Award to the following outstanding women lawyers:

Hannah-Beth Jackson, former Assemblywoman and attorney, has been fighting for women's rights since she was a young athlete, unable to play Little League baseball because she wasn't a boy.  After obtaining her law degree, Jackson began her career with the Santa Barbara District Attorney's office in 1976.  While there, she helped found Shelter Services for Women, the predecessor to Domestic Violence Solutions in Santa Barbara.  She was a founder of Santa Barbara Women Lawyers and Santa Barbara Women's Political Committee.  Later, while in private practice, she reprensented teh Tri-Counties chapter of Planned Parenthood in defending the "Bubble Ordinance," which provided a safe zone around Planned Parenthood clinics.  Jackson continued her commitment to women's reproductive health in the Assembly.  In all, Jackson authored 64 bills.  Also in the Assembly, she co-chaired the Assembly Select Committee on Title IX and chaired the Legislative Women's Caucus.  Jackson is now Executive Director of the Institute of the Renewal of the California Dream and Prsident of Speak Out California. (2011)

Victoria Jacobs, Managing Attorney of the Voluntary Legal Services Program (VLSP) of Northern California.  In every way, Ms. Jacobs embodies the ideal recipient of the Fay Stender Award.  She has spoken out against injustice in teh legal system and has protected the rights of the Sacramento area poor throughout her career.  She has made a career out of providing meaningful access to justice for low income people in the Sacramento area.  She has "walked the walk" as a feminist lawyer in her actions and words.  Her vigorous advocacy has kept women in their homes; protected them from unconscionable debt collectors and obtained wrongfully denied benefits.  While she is an accomplished lawyer, her selfless dedication to VLSP's mission has meant that her considerable achievements are often overlooked.  (2010)

Sharmin Eshraghi Bock, Alameda County District Attorney's Office, is a recognized advocate and leader in bringing to the forefront issues of human trafficking and the sexual exploitation of minors.  She has shown that human trafficking is a sophisticated form of organized crime occurring on the street level as well as across county, state and national borders.  Through Ms. Bock's tireless efforts of bringing light to this horrendous crime, California is now seen as a major hub of internatinal and domestic intra-state trafficking.  Ms. Bock is leading the systematic change in the juvenile and criminal justice systems, as well as in communities, so the response is one of providing help and protection to these children.  (2009)

Hon. Julie Conger, (Ret.) from the Alameda County Superior Court is a particularly special recipient.  Judge Conger, also started her career as a woman defense attorney in Alameda County and knew Fay Stender.  Judge Conger, like Ms. Stender, took on unpopular causes as an attorney.  Julie Conger, Penny Cooper and Fay Stender all represented those accused of crimes during the same tumultuous times, challenging the public safety systems, challenging the civil rights movement and birthing the women's rights movement.  Judge Conger also gained notoriety when she was elected to the Alameda County Bench 25 years ago, one of the early women to achieve that positon.  Her tireless efforts and advocacy have helped thousands of people in the most difficult of situations.  Through Judge Conger's actions, significant systematic changes have occurred that directly affect how our community is served by the justice system.   (2008)

Kim R. Hubbard (2007).

Tanya Neiman (2006).

Lilia Velasquez (2005).

Bonnie Rose Hough, a supervising attorney at the California Judicial Council's Administrative Office of the Courts, for devoting her career to facilitating access to justice in the family courts for poor and moderate-income women. Considered the "mother" of the family law facilitator program, she also helped develop family law information centers in the courts of three counties, self-help projects in seven counties, and strategic plans to provide services to pro per litigants throughout the state (2004).

Kate Yavenditti, long-time Staff Attorney with the San Diego Volunteer Lawyer Program, for her tireless efforts on behalf of women and children, particularly in the fight against domestic violence. Kate founded the first domestic violence restraining order clinic in Los Angeles in the 1970's; co-founded the first such clinic in San Diego; co-founded what is now the San Diego Domestic Violence Council; and in many additional ways has assisted the legal system in recognizing and responding to the needs of women and children (2003).

Lilly Spitz of Sacramento, for her work in the service of women and children. Lilly has worked in the area of health care policy for more than twenty years, as a vigorous advocate for improving health care access and services for women and girls. As chief legal counsel for the California Planned Parenthood Education Fund, Lilly tackles issues ranging from community clinic licensure and staffing to gender equity and reproductive rights (2002).

Nancy K.D. Lemon of Sacramento, for her advocacy for victims of domestic violence through the California Alliance Against Domestic Violence, and through expert consultation and training sessions (2001).

Sharon Kalemkiarian of San Diego, for her establishment of Project Heartbeat, a visionary coordination involving the county, local school districts and community advocacy organizations to redesign the delivery of public services to seriously emotionally disturbed youth. The Project, which was formally adopted by San Diego County, has helped care providers deliver family-oriented services and teach families how to cope so that emotionally disturbed youth can live at home rather than in residential care (2000).

Beth Parker of San Francisco, a Partner at McCutchen, Doyle, Brown & Enerson, for her work in challenging overcrowding and unconstitutional conditions in San Francisco jails, her clinic access litigation on behalf of Planned Parenthood, and her work for affirmative action, including at San Francisco's public interest law firm, Equal Rights Advocates (2000).

Carol Churchill of Long Beach, for her work in implementing programs on behalf of women, children and the elderly (1999).

Meredith Blake of Los Angeles, founder and Executive Director of Break the Cycle, an organization committed to stemming the epidemic of domestic violence by working proactively with youth (1999).

Tina Rasnow of Ventura, for her promotion of justice in organizing a project to aid women inmates in California, including workshops at the California Institute for Women in Frontera, and for filing amicus briefs on behalf of CWL and its affiliate Women Lawyers of Ventura County (1998).

Donna Bashaw of Orange County, for her public interest advocacy as an ABA-certified elder law specialist operating a Center which arranges conservatorships for the disabled elderly as well as guardianships of vulnerable minors, and for her creation of the Orange County Bar Association's Grandparent Guardianship Committee, which assists indigent grandparents in pursuit of guardianships (1997).

Abby Leibman, then Executive Director of the California Women's Law Center in Los Angeles, for her advocacy for women and girls, empowering poor and under-represented women, and increasing the public's awareness of and funding for programs which serve the female poor (1996).

Gay C. Danforth of San Francisco, for her public interest service in leading the efforts to establish the Children's Waiting Room project in the San Francisco Hall of Justice and the San Francisco Women Lawyers Alliance's Women of Color project (1995);

Abby Silverman of San Diego, a litigation partner at Baker & McKenzie and a member of that firm's Employment Law Practice Group, who is committed to fight for women's reproductive rights through her pro bono representation of Planned Parenthood in San Diego and Riverside Counties (1994);.

Nancy L. Davis of Oakland, then Executive Director of Equal Rights Advocates, whose unflagging commitment to social change and leadership has made ERA a formidable public interest legal organization dedicated to achieving women's equality and expanding women's rights and opportunities (1993);

Drucilla Stender Ramey, then Executive Director and General Counsel of the Bar Association of San Francisco, who was a major force against complacency and for positive action among lawyers in the Bay Area and throughout the state, with such innovative programs as the BASF Volunteer Legal Services Program (1992);

Pauline Gee, Regional Counsel for California Rural Legal Assistance in Marysville, for her commitment to alleviating the plight of poor and minority women and her work in representing victims of domestic violence (1991);

Patricia Herzog of Orange County, who was the moving force behind the establishment of the Orange County Poverty Law Center, and who in private practice is a persistent and passionate champion of the poor, of women, and of minorities in the conservative society of Orange County (1990);

Margaret Crosby, a San Francisco staff attorney for the ACLU of Northern California, for more than 10 years of litigation on behalf of the right of poor women to Medi-Cal funding for abortions; defending the reproductive rights of young women in cases concerning the validity of a parental consent requirement, the application of child abuse reporting laws to teenagers seeking abortions, and litigation involving late abortions (1989);

Winter Dellenbach of San Jose, staff attorney for San Jose's Mental Health Advocacy Project, for her work on behalf of low-income mental health patients and her successful implementation of Project SAFE. (Sexual Assault Free Environment) to reduce sexual assaults in locked psychiatric facilities in Santa Clara County (1988);

Marsha Berzon of San Francisco, then Associate General Counsel of the AFL-CIO and one of the leading feminist litigators in the country on behalf of women in the labor movement (1987);

Susan McGrievy of Los Angeles, for her work on prisoner's rights, gay and lesbian rights and women's issues (1986).

Marian Johnston of Sacramento, for her civil rights work, including defense of affirmative action laws and of California's pregnancy leave law (1985).

Amanda Hawes of Oakland, for her work on behalf of minorities and poor women, including litigation on work place health hazards and pension rights (1984).

Eva Jefferson Patterson of San Francisco, for her work on civil rights and battered women's issues (1983).

Karen Kaplowitz of Los Angeles, for her work in obtaining improved jail conditions for women inmates, and for her pro bono women's rights work (1982);