Three honored for commitments to public law, women and children
Longtime public lawyer Roderick E. Walston received the 2004 Public Lawyer
of the Year Award last month in recognition of his contributions to the fields
of water law, natural resources and environmental law.
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Walston |
Walston began his public service career 43 years ago as an attorney with the
California Department of Justice, where he was one of the first members of the
department’s natural resources practice group and quickly became a leader
in the field of water rights law. He argued many cases before the U.S. and California
supreme courts and other appellate courts, winning cases that involved Indian
gaming regulation and the law of public trust as well as key water rights decisions.
In 1997, he received the U. S. Supreme Court Best Brief Award from the National
Association of Attorneys General.
In 2000, Walston became general counsel of the Metropolitan Water District
of Southern California and later joined the U.S. Department of the Interior
as its deputy solicitor. He currently practices at Stoel Rives in San Francisco,
where he is a member of the firm’s resources, development and environment
group.
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Hough |
Bonnie Rose Hough, an attorney dedicated to improving equal access to justice
at the Administrative Office of the Courts, received the Fay Stender Award from
California Women Lawyers last month. She was honored as a role model for women
attorneys and for her commitment to the representation of women and disadvantaged
groups.
Since 1997, Hough has been senior attorney at the AOC’s Center for Families,
Children & the Courts, where she helped create family law information centers
in several county courts as well as five pilot self-help centers around the
state. She also has helped design and implement plans to furnish services to
pro per litigants in family law and civil litigation, providing services to
hundreds of thousands of Californians who otherwise would have no access to
information or assistance in the courts.
Said CWL president Candace Carroll, “Bonnie Rose Hough has devoted her
professional life to helping poor and moderate income people without lawyers
gain access to the family courts. She is viewed as the ‘mother’
of the Family Law Facilitator program, which was begun in 1997 and has put attorneys
in the family law courts in all of California’s 58 counties to help litigants
without lawyers navigate their way through child support issues.”
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Vesecky |
Sarah Vesecky, a dependency trial attorney and education specialist with the
Children’s Law Center of Los Angeles, is a recipient of the 2004 Child
Advocacy Award from the ABA Young Lawyers Division.
The honor recognizes “distinguished service on behalf of children,”
in particular Vesecky’s accomplishments on local education issues as well
as statewide reforms, including the passage last year of legislation that creates
new education rights and enhances school stability for all foster children.
An advocate for children since her undergraduate days at UCLA, Vesecky now
works on behalf of abused and neglected children in the Los Angeles Dependency
Court system. She recently expanded her efforts to advocate for the educational
needs of youth in foster care throughout California.
“Ms. Vesecky’s dedication to improving the lives of California’s
abused and neglected children through effective policymaking stands out as an
example to any young advocate coming up behind her,” said Assemblyman
Darrell Steinberg.
Added Children’s Law Center Executive Director Miriam Aroni Krinsky,
“Although Sarah is young and not that long out of law school, she has
already established a reputation among her colleagues, adversaries and the bench
as an authority on the law and a zealous, principled advocate.”
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