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Legendary Lawyer Leo Branton, Jr. Will Join Thomas Saenz and Other Top Attorneys Honored at ACLU/SC Law Luncheon

Monday, June 8, 2009

Legendary  lawyer Leo Branton, Jr. will be awarded a Lifetime Achievement Award at the ACLU of Southern California’s 15th Annual Law Luncheon on Friday, June 19, 2009 at the Millennium Biltmore Hotel. Joining Branton on the awards podium will be Thomas Saenz, a civil rights lawyer and advisor to Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, and other top attorneys who have worked on behalf of marriage equality, religious liberty and other issues.

Branton, the first black lawyer to serve as a delegate to the State Bar Convention and to sit on the State Bar Review Board, is renowned for successfully defending  activist Angela Davis on murder charges in the 1970s, as well as for representing Dorothy Dandridge, Miles Davis, Nat King Cole and other entertainment-industry luminaries.

Saenz, a member of Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa’s executive team who previously practiced civil rights litigation at the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund (MALDEF), will receive the ACLU/SC’s Social Justice Award. Jim Newton, editorial page editor of the Los Angeles Times and author of the 2006 book “Justice for All: Earl Warren and the Nation He Made,” will be the keynote speaker at the event.

Among this year’s other honorees are Greg D. Phillips, Jay M. Fujitani, David C. Dinielli, Michelle T. Friedland, Lika C. Miyake and Mark R. Conrad of Munger Tolles & Olson, LLP, who will receive the LGBT Award for their work on Strauss v. Horton, the case on which the challenge to Proposition 8 was based. Although the California Supreme Court ultimately upheld Proposition 8, these attorneys worked with a coalition of colleagues from the ACLU and other civil rights organizations to produce complex legal arguments that pointed out the fundamental inequality imposed by the ballot measure, and the threats it poses to all vulnerable minorities in California.

The Religious Liberty Award will go to Keli N. Osaki, Yi-Chin Ho, Cristin Zeisler, Sean Matsler, Roger A. Grable, Susan K. Hori and Lauren Tang of Manatt Phelps & Phillips, LLP, and K. Luan Tran of Lee Tran & Liang. These lawyers joined with the ACLU/SC to win the right for a Buddhist congregation in Garden Grove to have its plans for a new temple approved by the city.

The full list of honorees at the ACLU/SC’s 15th Annual Law Luncheon:

Education Advocacy Award Jack W. Londen, Matthew I. Kreeger, Terri Garland Morrison & Foerster, LLP

Equal Justice Advocacy Award Stacy Tolchin Van Der Hout, Brigagliano & Nightingale, LLP

LGBT Award Greg D. Phillips, Jay M. Fujitani, David C. Dinielli, Michelle T. Friedland, Lika C. Miyake, Mark R. Conrad Munger Tolles & Olson, LLP

Lifetime Achievement Award Leo Branton, Jr.

Pro Bono Advocacy Award Becki F. Kieffer, Jennifer Mathis Troutman Sanders, LLP

Religious Liberty Award Keli N. Osaki, Yi-Chin Ho, Cristin Zeisler, Benjamin Benumof, Roger A. Grable, Susan K. Hori, Lauren Tang Manatt Phelps & Phillips, LLP K. Luan Tran Lee Tran & Liang)

Social Justice Award Thomas Sanez City of Los Angeles

Keynote Speaker Jim Newton Editor, Los Angeles Times and author of "Justice for All: Earl Warren and the Nation He Made".

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