The CLEA Awards Committee is once again soliciting nominations for the Award for Outstanding Advocate for Clinical Teachers.

Nominations should be in the form of a letter of no more than three single-spaced pages. Each nomination should be endorsed by at least three individuals, and at least one of the three must be a full-time clinical faculty member at a law school and a member of CLEA. The nominating letter should clearly indicate which of the nominators are CLEA members. Letters of support from CLEA members or non-members are also welcome.

The nomination deadline for both awards is Tuesday, March 31. Please send nominations via email to awards@cleaweb.org with the subject line: 2026 CLEA Awards. All materials, including letters of support, should be submitted as a single PDF.

CLEA will notify the awardees and their nominators as soon as a decision is made. We will ask the nominators to prepare a short video, to be shown at the awards ceremony, introducing the nominee and explaining the reasons for their nomination.

This award recognizes an individual who has served as a voice for clinical teachers and who has contributed to the advancement of experiential legal education. The criteria for the award are:

· commitment to the field of experiential legal education;

· advancement of the field (e.g., by working within organizations that affect the contours of legal education, by writing and speaking about the field, or by serving as a spokesperson for the field in the litigation, legislative, administrative, political, or other arenas);

· commitment to advancing clinical pedagogy, teaching, and the design and implementation of effective clinic or externship courses; and

· a record of fostering a spirit of community (e.g., by planning or leading conferences or initiatives).

Clinical teachers include individuals who teach in-house clinics, externships, hybrid courses, and other forms of experience-based law courses.

Prior recipients of the award are:

2025 Laila Hlass (Tulane) and Allison Korn (Duke)

2024 2023 Leigh Goodmark (Maryland) Deborah Archer (NYU)

2022 Sheila Bedi (Northwestern) and Ian Weinstein (Fordham)

2021 Robert Kuehn (Washington University in St. Louis)

2019 Stephen J. Ellmann (posthumously)

2017 Elliott Milstein (American)

2016 Gary Palm (posthumously)

2015 Claudia Angelos (NYU)

2014 Jon Dubin (Rutgers)

2012 Phyllis Goldfarb (George Washington)

2011 Deborah Epstein (Georgetown)

2010 Jane Barett (Maryland)

2009 Ann Shalleck (American)

2007 Roy Stuckey (South Carolina)

2006 Margaret Martin Barry (Catholic)

2005 Jay Pottenger (Yale)

2004 Paul Tremblay (Boston College)

2003 Nancy Cook and Robert Seibel (Cornell)

2002 Mark Heyrmann (Chicago) and Liz Ryan Cole (Vermont)

Individuals who currently are, or at any time during this academic year were, CLEA Board members or Executive Committee members are not eligible to receive the award this year.