HARRISBURG (June 19, 2007) - The Pennsylvania Bar Association Legal Services to the Public Committee recently presented awards to lawyers deserving special recognition for voluntary efforts to provide free and reduced-fee legal representation to low-income Pennsylvanians. It presented Attorney Pro Bono Awards to individual lawyers and to law firms for noteworthy pro bono efforts.

The committee also presented Judges' Awards to Pennsylvania jurists improving civil legal aid and the Civil Legal Aid Attorney of the Year Award to a lawyer demonstrating outstanding commitment to providing legal services for the needy.

The award winners are as follows:

Adams County
Kelly Dilts, Law Office of Roy Keefer, Gettysburg: Attorney Pro Bono Award - for providing pro bono representation in contested divorce cases.

Allegheny County
Laura A. Maines, Reed Smith L.L.P., Pittsburgh: Attorney Pro Bono Award - for handling complex and important child welfare trials and appeals, including termination of parent rights and adoption proceedings, and for educating adoption professionals about terminations and appeals.

Pittsburgh Pro Bono Partnership, Pittsburgh: Attorney Pro Bono Award - for dedication to increasing pro bono services in southwestern Pennsylvania and for creation of six "signature" projects, including two aimed at children in need, community-based legal clinics and the nationally-recognized "Lawyers on Loan" program.

Sarah L. Shannon, Eckert Seamans, Pittsburgh: Attorney Pro Bono Award - for planning and launching the Pro Bono Custody Conciliation Signature Project that provides volunteer lawyers to indigent clients to attempt settlement of custody cases at the conciliation stage.

Beaver County
Joseph Spratt, Bridgewater: Attorney Pro Bono Award - for accepting numerous reduced-fee cases and expending numerous hours without compensation.

Berks County
Tina Simpson-Price, Hoffert, Huckabee & Weiler P.C., Reading: Attorney Pro Bono Award - for ongoing pro bono services, including representation for contested custody matters, to clients referred by MidPenn Services.

Bucks County
Alison B. Long, Law Office of William L. Goldman, Doylestown: Attorney Pro Bono Award - for handling protection from abuses cases and custody conferences and hearings referred to her by Legal Aid of Southern Pennsylvania-Bucks County Division.

Centre County
Denise Bierly, Delafield, McGee, Jones and Kauffman, State College: Attorney Pro Bono Award - for offering representation in adoption cases, including non-consensual cases, directed to her by MidPenn Legal Services.

Chester County
Judge Katherine B. L. Platt, Chester County Court of Common Pleas: 2007 Judges' Award - for establishing tutoring classes so that lawyers from many fields can effectively offer pro bono representation in family law cases, for doubling the number of lawyers that volunteer to handle such cases in the county and for developing nontraditional areas of pro bono services, including assistance with guardianships and small estates.

Clearfield County
Joseph Colavecchi, Colavecchi and Colavecchi, Clearfield: Attorney Pro Bono Award - for assisting needy clients of MidPenn Legal Services with matters related to debt collection and deed transfer.

Clinton County
Stuart L. Hall, Miller and Hall, Lock Haven: Attorney Pro Bono Award - for ongoing participation in the pro bono referral system between North Penn Legal Services and the Clinton County Bar Association.

Cumberland County
Hannah Herman-Snyder, Griffie & Associates, Carlisle: Attorney Pro Bono Award - for ongoing pro bono work for clients of MidPenn Legal Services and for conducting a clinic on MidPenn's behalf.

Dauphin County
John W. Frommer III, Smigel, Anderson & Sacks L.L.P., Harrisburg: Attorney Pro Bono Award - for more than a decade of service to MidPenn Legal Services by running its Pro Bono Program Divorce Clinics and for ongoing support in a variety of pro bono cases.

Brad Koplinski, Department of Pennsylvania Auditor General, Harrisburg: Attorney Pro Bono Award - for ongoing pro bono representation of battered individuals referred to him and for active involvement in the YWCA of Greater Harrisburg Domestic Violence Legal Center

Stephen R. Krone, Harrisburg: 2007 Civil Legal Aid Attorney of the Year Award - for dedicating more than 35 years of his career to public service at MidPennLegal Services and its predecessor, Dauphin County Legal Services, for using his extensive experience in many areas of the law, particularly housing, social security and child support, to help low income persons, and for mentoring many new lawyers at MidPenn Legal Services.

Delaware County
Yvonne R. Bradley, Chester: Attorney Pro Bono Award - for representing numerous victims of domestic violence who are without financial resources to protect themselves and their children from abuse.

Erie County
J. Gregory Moore, Erie: Attorney Pro Bono Award - for more than 20 years of volunteerism with pro bono programs, including the Legal Aid Volunteer Attorneys Program, the Erie County Bar Association's Conflict Panel and the Non-Profit Partnership, which is a project of the Erie County bar and the Erie Community Foundation.

Huntingdon County
Edson S. Crafts III, Huntingdon: Attorney Pro Bono Awards - for providing free legal services to PRIDE, a non-profit organization for persons with disabilities, during a period of more than 10 years.

Lackawanna County
President Judge Chester T. Harhut, Lackawanna County Court of Common Pleas: 2007 Judges' Award - for being a champion of children and families in the court system by establishing a "Kids First" program to enlighten parents about the impacts of separation and divorce on children, for spearheading an anti-truancy program, for supporting use of alternative dispute resolution and for additional efforts to increase the effectiveness and efficiency of the court.

Abrahamsen Moran & Conaboy, Scranton: Attorney Pro Bono Award - for involving each firm lawyer in pro bono efforts and providing expertise in child custody matters, landlord-tenant disputes and protection from abuse cases.

Brier & Brier, Scranton: Attorney Pro Bono Award - for involving each firm lawyer in pro bono efforts and providing expertise in child custody, child support matters and protection from abuse cases.

Powell Law, Scranton: Attorney Pro Bono Award - for involving each firm lawyer in pro bono efforts and providing expertise in protection from abuse, landlord-tenant and unemployment compensation matters.

Frank J. Ruggiero, Scranton: Attorney Pro Bono Award - for ongoing commitment to pro bono service, including recent efforts in custody, protection from abuse and divorce cases.

Lancaster County
Robert D. Bacher, Golin, Haefner & Bacher, Lancaster: Attorney Pro Bono Award - for 18 years of exemplary participation in Lancaster's Voluntary Attorney Program.

Lawrence County
Charles S. Cusick Jr., New Castle: Attorney Pro Bono Award - for providing representation to clients of Neighborhood Legal Services and for improving the justice system.

Lebanon County
Joseph C. Mesics, Feeman, Mesics & Hopstetter, Lebanon, Lebanon County: Attorney Pro Bono Award - for ongoing acceptance of pro bono cases from MidPenn Legal Services, a majority of which have involved child custody actions.

Lycoming County
Brian J. Bluth, McCormick Law Firm, Williamsport: Attorney Pro Bono Award - for participating on the Protection from Abuse Panel, for representing victims of domestic violence and for educating others about legal changes that impact clients in need.

Montgomery County
Donna L. Adelsberger, Glenside: Attorney Pro Bono Award - for her ongoing commitment to protecting children through voluntary efforts with the Montgomery Child Advocacy Project.

Romanna C. Butcher, Norristown: Attorney Pro Bono Award - for ongoing representation of clients from Legal Aid of Southeastern Pennsylvania's Montgomery County Division in matters related to custody and divorce.

Elena Park, Cozen O'Connor, West Conshohocken: Attorney Pro Bono Award - for providing more than 500 hours of pro bono services during 2006 and for ongoing representation in complex and highly-publicized immigration cases, including participation in the legal challenge against Hazelton's Illegal Immigration Relief Act and securing a temporary U.S. visa for an Iraqi woman who aided the U.S. military with translation services.

Philadelphia County
Betsy A. Gerber, Cozen O'Connor, Philadelphia: Attorney Pro Bono Award - for creating three new pro bono programs at the firm and for handling cases involving guardianship and adoption.

Cozen O'Connor, Philadelphia: Attorney Pro Bono Award - for its Pennsylvania lawyers and paralegals devoting more than 9,900 hours to pro bono matters during 2006, for handling complex pro bono issues such as immigration and asylum law and post-conviction remedies and for developing its own charitable programs to serve the greater Philadelphia region.

PECO (Exelon Corporation Legal Department), Philadelphia: Attorney Pro Bono Award - for its long-standing tradition of providing legal services and support to the community and for encouraging all legal department employees to participate in pro bono service and in company-sponsored community and charitable activities to provide legal services to people of limited needs.

Saul Ewing, L.L.P., Philadelphia: Attorney Pro Bono Award - for its pro bono project, "We're All In," which since its establishment in 2005 has generated more than 4,300 hours of pro bono service to meet the legal needs of low-income seniors and veterans with matters such as homeownership, healthcare directives, and predatory lending, and for lawyer involvement on public interest boards.

Schnader Harrison Segal & Lewis LLP: Philadelphia: Attorney Pro Bono Award - to Meredith Brennan, Natasha Gonzalez Rojas and Lauren Sorrentino for handling numerous custody, child support, and divorce proceedings through the local public interest organizations, for representing the interests of children when asked to do so by the courts and for work on cases that involve grandparents' rights and same sex partnerships.

Schuylkill County
Debra A. Smith, Krasno, Krasno & Onwudinjo, Pottsville: Attorney Pro Bono Award - for service on the board of directors of MidPenn Legal Services, for long-term commitment to providing pro bono services, for conducting custody clinics for individuals unable to secure legal representation and for developing informational packets that explain custody proceedings.

Washington County
Rebecca Bowman, Washington: Attorney Pro Bono Award - for providing pro bono representation in adoptions and other legal matters and for assisting more than 50 clients.

Westmoreland County
Terence O'Halloran, Greensburg: Attorney Pro Bono Award - for more than 15 years of providing pro bono services, often in bankruptcy cases, to referral clients from the Westmoreland Pro Bono Program, which was formed by the Westmoreland Bar Association and Westmoreland Bar Foundation.

York County
William Gierasch Jr., Stock and Leader, York: Attorney Pro Bono Award - for ongoing commitment to MidPenn Legal Services and its predecessor programs, for organizing a fundraiser to hire a dedicated custody attorney for the county and for organizing the MidPenn Advisory Committee, which is a group of businesses donating furniture and other needed items to MidPenn's York office.

Founded in 1895, the Pennsylvania Bar Association strives to promote justice, professional excellence and respect for the law; improve public understanding of the legal system; facilitate access to legal services; and serve the 29,000 lawyers who are members of the association.