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 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.  

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.

Prior award recipients:

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

2024 Leigh Goodmark (Maryland)

2023 Deborah Archer (NYU)

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

2021 Robert Kuehn  

2019 Stephen Ellmann (posthumously)

2017 Elliott Milstein (American)

2016 Gary Palm (posthumously)   

2015 Claudia Angelos (NYU)

2014 Jon C. Dubin (Rutgers-Newark)

2012 Phyllis Goldfarb (George Washington)

2011 Deborah Epstein (Georgetown)

2010 Jane Barett (Maryland)

2009 Ann Shalleck (American)

2008 Karen Tokarz (Washington U. in St. Louis)

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 (then at Cornell)

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