Trial Lawyer of the Year Award

Each year, Public Justice presents its Trial Lawyer of the Year Award to the attorney(s) who made the greatest contribution to the public interest within the past year by trying or settling a precedent-setting, socially significant case.

The nomination period for the 2020 award closed on March 2, 2020. The award was presented at our 2020 Annual Gala on August 6. Contact Director of Communications Aidan O’Shea at aoshea@publicjustice.net with any questions.

(For a look at past recipients, click here.)

2020 Winner

The 2020 winner is the team from North Carolina Nuisance Cases, which took on factory farms ruining the quality of life of low-income communities of color.

The NC Nuisance team consists of Mona Lisa Wallace, John Hughes, Daniel Wallace, Mark Doby, Whitney Wallace, Wallace and Graham, P.A., Salisbury, N.C.; Lynn Bradshaw, Michael Kaeske, Kaeske Law Firm, Austin, Texas; Lisa Blue, Baron & Blue, Dallas, Texas.

You can read more about this incredible case here.

2020 Finalists

There were three finalist teams for this year’s award. In addition to NC Nuisance Cases, the plaintiffs’ attorneys in the following two cases were named finalists. Read more about each of these outstanding finalist cases here.

Does v. Michigan Department of Corrections (taking on the Michigan Department of Corrections on behalf of incarcerated youth survivors of assault)

Pozner v. Fetzer (innovative litigation against an alt-right conspiracy theorist targeting the parents of Sandy Hook victims)