Fay Stender Award

CWL established the Fay Stender Award in 1982 in honor of Fay Stender, a Bay Area attorney who spent much of her professional life fighting for prisoners' rights.

Fay Abrahams Stender was born in Berkeley in 1932, the third generation of her mother's family to be born in the Bay Area. She attended Reed College and graduated from U.C. Berkeley with a major in English Literature, going on to receive a law degree from the University of Chicago in 1956.

After clerking for Associate Justice John W. Shenk, California Supreme Court, Ms. Stender associated with criminal defense attorney Charles Garry, where, over the next ten years, she founded the Prison Law Project and represented a number of prisoners, including George Jackson, whose prison letters were published in 1970 as Soledad Brother. She was also active in professional organizations on the national, state and local levels. She was a member of CWL's first elected board, and even after leaving the board remained actively involved in the organization's work. Fay chaired CWL's Joint Custody Project, and served on the advisory Committee of the Women's Litigation Unit. She also chaired the San Francisco Bar Association's Employment of Women Committee, and served on the charter board of Equal Rights Advocates' Lesbian Rights Project.

In the early morning hours of Memorial Day, 1979, Fay was shot five times by an intruder who falsely accused her of betraying George Jackson. Gravely injured and seriously disabled, she committed suicide one year later. She was survived by her mother, sister, husband, two children, and by numerous friends and colleagues.

Throughout her life, Fay undertook unpopular causes and worked with under-represented groups and individuals. Her tenacity, creativity, and compelling sense of justice were legendary, and her commitment, energy and integrity enriched all who were privileged to work with her.

Criteria for the Fay Stender Award

The annual award is given to a feminist attorney who, like Fay Stender, is committed to the representation of women, disadvantaged groups and unpopular causes, and whose courage, zest for life and demonstrated ability to effect change as a single individual make her a role model for women attorneys. Candidates for the award are judged on the basis of the following attributes which were characteristic of Fay Stender:

How to Submit a Nomination

The Fay Stender award is presented annually at CWL's dinner at the autumn California State Bar Annual Meeting. Please submit nominations in writing, describing the nominee and the ways in which she meets the above criteria, along with a resume and any letters of recommendation, 650 Howe Avenue, Suite 555, Sacramento, CA 95825, phone 916/646-3114, email: info@cwl.org. Please contact the CWL office or any board member with any questions.

Past Recipients

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

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);