Annual Meeting

The Awards

The Voices of the Bar event will feature the presentation of the BBA’s Pro Bono and Public Service Awards, including:

• The John G. Brooks Legal Services Award
  Massachusetts State Representative Ruth Balser (12th – Middlesex) will receive the Distinguished Legislator Award at the 2024 BBA Annual Meeting on November 14, 2024. Over the last two decades, Rep. Balser has been the House’s leading voice in support of MLAC funding – and an invaluable legislative partner to the BBA and the Equal Justice Coalition in our advocacy efforts for this appropriation at the annual Walk to the Hill event every winter. Her unwavering leadership and support have helped raise MLAC’s annual appropriation by more than 400% over the past 14 years.
    
  “There was no day at the Hill where I had more constituents come to see me than the Walk to the Hill events,” Rep. Balser said, “and I was always very moved by both the legal aid attorneys and those in private practice who felt it was so important to protect funds for civil legal aid and ensure that low-income people can always have equal access to the law. This has been a priority for the people of my district for years, and I’ve been proud to champion it for them and with them.”
    
  Additionally, she has championed improving behavioral health services to those who suffer from mental illness or addictions who land in the criminal justice system, recognizing that these are illnesses, and not crimes, and advocating for oversight from health care, rather than criminal justice, professionals.
    
• The Thurgood Marshall Award
• The Distinguished Legislator Award
• The Inaugural Mary K. Ryan Achievement in Pro Bono Awards