Social Justice Prize
At its annual Gala, the Henderson Center awards a prize to a Boalt Hall graduate who has been admitted to the bar for fewer than seven years and best exemplifies the intellectual rigor, integrity, courage and vision that are distinctive of the Honorable Thelton E. Henderson.
The nominee should have (1) graduated from Boalt Hall within the last seven years; (2) demonstrated a commitment to social justice through use of the law to challenge societal inequities; (3) made a significant contribution to under-represented and/or disadvantaged communities; and (4) engaged in professional work that reflects the intellectual rigor, integrity, courage and vision that are distinctive of the Honorable Thelton E. Henderson.
The 2009 prize will be presented at the Henderson Center's Trailblazer for Justice Gala, which will be held this year on November 5, 2009 at San Francisco's City Hall.
Past Recipients
2008 Alegria De La Cruz '03
Directing Attorney, Migrant Farmworker Project
California Rural Legal Assistance
2007 Christopher Daley '01
Co-Director, Transgender Law Center
2006 Tirien Steinbach '99
Director, Decriminalization of Poverty Practice
East Bay Community Law Center
Alegria De La Cruz ' 03, 2008 Social Justice Prize Recipient
The 2008 Social Justice Prize Awardee, Alegria De La Cruz, is Directing Attorney for California Rural Legal Assistance's Migrant Farmworker Project in Fresno where her work focuses on the unique and challenging issues facing this state’s farmworker community. Alegría advocates to protect the rights of her farmworker clients in the arenas of wage and hour law, fair and habitable housing, civil rights, employment discrimination, and environmental justice. She serves on the Board of Directors of Centro Binacional por el Desarrollo del Indígena Oaxaqueño (CBDIO), a state-wide initiative that addresses legal needs and develops capacities in indigenous communities throughout California. She is also a board member of Fresno Metro Ministries, an interfaith non-profit organization engaged in community problem-solving, advocacy, and community organizing on issues of air quality, access to health care, and hunger and nutrition. She was instrumental in launching Community University Research and Action for Justice (CURAJ), a path breaking effort that evolved from the Henderson Center’s Central Valley Initiative, and serves on its governing board.
At Boalt Hall, Alegria was a social justice leader as Editor-in Chief of the Berkeley La Raza Law Journal, Co-Chair of La Raza Students Association, and active in the Strategy Committee of the Coalition for Diversity. She was awarded the Phoenix Fellowship and won the Moot Court Award for the combination of best oral argument and best brief. The granddaughter of Jessie De La Cruz, one of the first UFW organizers, Alegria received her B.A. in history from Yale University. In the words of one of the lawyers who nominated her for this honor: "Her work ensures that individuals who face cultural and linguistic barriers—often powerless in this society—will be fairly treated. Alegría's professional work reflects the intellectual rigor, integrity, and courage that embodies Judge Henderson's life work."
Christopher Daley '01, 2007 Social Justice Prize Recipient
Christopher Daley, Director of the Transgender Law Center in San Francisco, is the 2007 awardee of the Hon. Thelton E. Henderson Social Justice Prize. Daley received his B.A. from Indiana University and his J.D. from Boalt Hall in 2001. Upon graduation from law school Daley created California's first direct services practice for transgender legal issues while a Pride Law Fund Tom Steel Fellow at the National Center for Lesbian Rights. Named an Echoing Green Fellow in 2002, Daley launched the Transgender Law Center and became its director in 2004. Over the last five years, he has raised an unprecedented one million dollars for transgender rights and grown TLC into a national model staffed by more than five full-time employees. TLC's multi-disciplinary, multi-issue commitment has enabled the organization to achieve significant victories in economic justice, health care access, leadership development, identity recognition, and student and prisoner rights.
Daley has also provided legal assistance to several thousand transgender clients, presented dozens of workshops on transgender legal issues, participated in significant public policy initiatives, written practice guides on transgender law, and mentored numerous attorneys in effectively representing transgender clients. Before law school Daley worked at a non-profit homeless policy organization and volunteered as an HIV/AIDS outreach educator. At Boalt he worked with social justice organizations focusing on police misconduct, public benefits, immigrant rights, and drug policy reform.
Tirien Steinbach '99, 2006 Social Justice Prize Recipient
Tirien Steinbach, the director of the Decriminalization of Poverty Practice at the East Bay Community Law Center , is the inaugural winner of the Hon. Thelton E. Henderson Social Justice Prize. A 1999 graduate of Boalt Hall, Ms. Steinbach has demonstrated the vision, the passion, and the intellectual excellence that the prize is intended to award. Tirien began her legal career as a NAPIL Equal Justice Fellow at the California Appellate Project representing death row inmates and mastering the complex principles of capital habeas law. After volunteering her services at a homeless services center in Berkeley , she became committed to building a legal clinic at three sites where a medical clinic operated. With the most respectful and engaged attention to the homeless clients she was serving , Steinbach's vision took shape as the Suitcase Clinic at EBCLC. Not only does this clinic provide critical legal services to the most vulnerable in our community, it has also enabled over eighty law students to obtain significant clinical training under Tirien's dedicated supervision. More recently Tirien has expanded the work of the Decriminalization of Poverty Practice to include legal services and information to thousands of clients whose criminal records have placed obstacles in their paths. She coordinated the First Annual Alameda County Criminal Records Remedies Summit in collaboration with Congresswoman Barbara Lee and the Alameda County Courts. When that summit drew over 800 people needing assistance in expunging their criminal records, Tirien developed and launched yet another innovative program to serve such clients on an ongoing basis. Steinbach also teaches an inspiring course in Community Lawyering at Boalt Hall. Bringing her full humanity to the practice of law and her supervision of students, Tirien's work is an ongoing demonstration of the principles exemplified by Judge Henderson's life and work.