DEAN KATHARINE T. BARTLETT HONORED FOR COMMITMENT TO PUBLIC INTEREST LAW

WASHINGTON, D.C. (October 19, 2006) –Katharine T. Bartlett, Dean, Duke University School of Law, will be honored by Equal Justice Works during the organization's 2006 Awards Dinner on Thursday, October 19, 2006 in Washington, D.C.

Dean Bartlett is being honored with the "Dean John R. Kramer Award" for the commitment to public interest law she has displayed during her tenure at Duke University School of Law.

Under Dean Katharine T. Bartlett's leadership, public service at Duke University School of Law has become a school-wide responsibility of faculty, students and staff. Dean Bartlett has considerably increased the number of in-house clinics to serve unmet legal needs and presided over remarkable growth in the number of summer public interest fellowships. Public service opportunities that she fostered at Duke include pro bono placements, community service projects and annual leadership retreats.

Dean Bartlett is responsible for staff and budget increases that enhanced programming at the Office of Public Interest and Pro Bono and improved public interest counseling capacity at the Career and Professional Development Center. Her work resulted in a generous loan repayment assistance program at Duke University School of Law. To demonstrate her support for public service, Dean Bartlett and her husband made a $100,000 personal contribution to begin an endowment for Duke's loan repayment assistance program.

Equal Justice Works creates and supports public interest law opportunities for law students and lawyers. The 2006 Equal Justice Works Awards Dinner is the nation's largest gathering of public interest law supporters and recognizes extraordinary achievements in this field. The dinner will take place at 6:00 p.m. at the Ronald Reagan Building and International Trade Center in Washington, D.C. Media representatives interested in attending should contact James Greif at (571) 228-6932 or jgreif@equaljusticeworks.org.

Equal Justice Works, a nonprofit, nonpartisan 501(c)(3) organization, was founded in 1986 by law students dedicated to working for equal justice on behalf of underserved communities and causes. Today, Equal Justice Works is the national leader in creating summer and postgraduate public interest opportunities for law students and lawyers as well as in urging more public interest programming at law schools. For more information about Equal Justice Works, visit www.equaljusticeworks.org.

– end –