Immigrant Advocate Tim Freilich, of VA’s Legal Aid Justice Center, is Recipient of American Constitution Society Award of $10,000 for “Uncompromising and Creative Advocacy on Behalf of Marginalized People”
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Bibliographic Info:
Source: Legal Aid Justice Center (VA), “Tim Frielich Wins David Carliner Public Interest Award Presented by the American Constitution Society for Law and Policy,” Press Release
Date: June 20, 2009
Legal Aid Justice Center announces: "At its Annual Convention on June 20, 2009, the American Constitution Society for Law and Policy presented its first David Carliner Public Interest Award and associated $10,000 cash prize to Tim Freilich of the Virginia-based Legal Aid Justice Center. The David Carliner Public Interest Award recognizes outstanding mid-career public interest lawyers whose work best exemplifies its namesake's legacy of fearless, uncompromising and creative advocacy on behalf of marginalized people. The award was established in memory of David Carliner, one of the 20th Century's great public interest lawyers and a champion of justice both in his native Washington, DC, and on the national stage . . . . Mr. Freilich was selected for the award based on his unwavering commitment to the public interest and his tireless work supporting Virginia's immigrants in their efforts to find justice and fair treatment in the workplace . . . . Under Mr. Freilich's direction, the Legal Aid Justice Center's Immigrant Advocacy Program has: worked on the local, state, and federal levels to promote policies that recognize the contributions of Virginia's immigrants; built a powerful statewide network that has been instrumental in the defeat of more than one hundred anti-immigrant bills in the Virginia General Assembly; represented thousands of individuals in claims for unpaid wages, winning judgments and settlements totaling approximately $3 million; developed innovative strategies to help workers recover unpaid minimum and overtime wages; [and] served as co-counsel in major class action litigation on behalf of predominantly Mexican and Guatemalan workers brought to the U.S. to plant trees under the H-2B work visa program. In addition to vindicating the individual rights of the workers, these cases seek to expose the abuses inherent in the H-2B work visa program."