Leonard Weinglass in Defense of Civil Liberties Award
Nominations for the 2024 Weinglass Award must be submitted by Monday, May 6, 2024. You may submit your nominations by e-mail to sections@justice.org. Please complete this nomination form.
An AAJ member for more than 20 years, Gerard Stranch is the founding and managing member at Stranch, Jennings & Garvey, PLLC. He is a third-generation trial lawyer and leads the firm’s class action and mass tort practice groups. His additional areas of practice include bank fees, data breaches, wage and hour disputes, worker adjustment and retraining notification, personal injury, and trucking wrecks.
Gerard has forged a distinguished career in civil rights litigation. He has served as lead or co-lead counsel for the firm in many cases, including as lead trial attorney in the Sullivan Baby Doe case (originally filed as Staubus v. Purdue) against U.S. opioid producers Endo Health Solutions Inc. and Endo Pharmaceuticals Inc., resulting in a settlement agreement that was the largest per capita settlement achieved by any prosecution with Endo to date. He led the litigation team in the Sullivan Baby Doe suit, for which the team won the 2022 Tennessee Trial Lawyer of the Year award. He was personally appointed to the steering committee of the In re: Volkswagen “Clean Diesel” Marketing, Sales Practices and Products Liability Litigation, resulting in the largest consumer auto settlement and one of the largest settlements in any matter ever.
Gerard is an adjunct professor at Vanderbilt University Law School, from which he also received his J.D.
2023 Leonard Weinglass in Defense of Civil Liberties Award
Beth Baldinger
Throughout her nearly 40-year career as a plaintiff trial
lawyer, Beth has championed the civil rights of victims of misconduct by police
and other public officials. Most recently, in May 2022, after eight years of
highly contentious litigation, including a four-week trial in federal court –
which ended in a mistrial – Beth settled the case of Xavier Ingram vs.
Camden County for a record-breaking amount of $10 million. The settlement
is the largest police brutality settlement in New Jersey history, and one of
the largest in the nation’s history. Beth is a formidable trial lawyer who
always go the distance to fight for her clients’ rights. Her cases have been
publicized in the national and local media.
About the Award
The AAJ Civil Rights Section presents the Leonard Weinglass in Defense of Civil Liberties Award annually to honor an attorney or a civil rights advocate who has made a noteworthy contribution to the defense of civil rights by bringing, trying, or resolving a suit, or by otherwise protecting or advancing civil liberties, in a way that has had a significant impact in the past year. The Section hosted a lecture by Leonard Weinglass and awarded him the first Weinglass Award at the 2004 AAJ Annual Convention.
Past Recipients
2023: Beth Baldinger
2022: Julie Rikelman
2021: George Floyd Legal Team and the Floyd Family
2020: Barry Kowalski
2019: Bridie Farrell and Ross “Rocky” Anderson
2018: Bryan Stevenson
2017: Julie Brown
2016: William “Bill” J. Shepard
2015: Matthew Cron, Arash Jahanian, Qusair Mohamedbhai, and Siddartha Rathod
2014: Joseph P. Kennedy
2013: James E. McElroy
2012: People’s Law Office
2011: Michael Bien & Donald Specter
2010: Marsha Levick
2009: Fred Gray Sr.
2008: Edward G. Kramer
2006: Alan Graf
2005: Arthur Bryant
2004: Leonard Weinglass
Leonard I. Weinglass
The Weinglass Award is named in honor of civil rights attorney Leonard Weinglass, who had long demonstrated a strong commitment to defending our civil liberties. From his days representing the Chicago Seven (originally, the Chicago Eight) with partner William Kunstler to his more recent representation of the Cuban Five, Weinglass’s clients are a “Who’s Who” of politically targeted criminal defendants. In addition to the Chicago Seven and the Cuban Five, Weinglass has represented Angela Davis, Ron Kaufman, Jane Fonda, Bill and Emily Harris (the kidnappers of Patty Hearst), Native American activists Jimi Simmons, Skyhorse and Mohawk, and death row journalist Mumia Abu-Jamal.
Section members works to preserve constitutional rights and vindicate the rights of individuals whose civil rights have been violated.
Learn MoreEach year, American Association for Justice honors trial lawyers, affiliates, and advocates who support its fight for justice.
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