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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
January 1, 2005
CONTACT:
Tracy Schroth
Director of Communications
(510) 835-8098, x3013
OAKLAND, CA
NCYL senior attorney Bill Grimm has won the highly prestigious 2005 Kutak-Dodds Prize for his work on behalf of low-income children. The Kutak-Dodds Prize is awarded to an equal justice advocate who makes a significant contribution to "the enhancement of human dignity and quality of life" of those people unable to afford legal representation. Awarded by the National Legal Aid and Defender Association (NLADA), it is considered the top national honor given to legal services lawyers and carries a cash prize of $10,000.
"Bill has dedicated his life to making life better for poor children, often at great personal sacrifice," said NCYL Director John O'Toole. "He is one of the most passionate, tenacious, and talented lawyers I have ever known."
Grimm, who is believed to be the only child advocate to receive the Kutak-Dodds award, has dedicated his entire 30-year legal career to helping children. Since joining NCYL in 1988, he has focused exclusively on improving the lives of foster children in states throughout the country. A highly skilled litigator, he has won landmark victories on behalf of tens of thousands of foster children in Baltimore, Arkansas, Utah, and Washington state. In Washington, he won a stunning victory when the state Supreme Court ruled that repeatedly moving foster children from place to place caused them severe emotional harm and violated their constitutional rights. Grimm and his co-counsel are now implementing sweeping reforms of the state's foster care system, requiring the state to provide stable placements, mental health screening and treatment, and other improvements.
Grimm is actively working with child advocates in Nevada to improve conditions for foster children there, and he has helped draft pending legislation in California aimed at improving the leadership and accountability of the state's child welfare system.
Grimm's career began in the trenches of Maryland legal services, where he started work as a staff attorney after graduating from University of Maryland Law School in 1975. He went on to supervise 40 legal services lawyers and staff in the Child Advocacy Division. Despite the increased demands on his time, he continued to manage his own caseload, appearing in juvenile court almost every day.
Through his work as a legal services attorney in Baltimore, Grimm became interested in systemic change. He soon learned that instead of protecting abused and neglected children, Baltimore's foster care system often further abused them by putting them in dangerous placements, moving them repeatedly, and denying them adequate health care. His efforts on behalf of individual children culminated in the landmark 1984 suit L.J. v. Massinga, a federal class action brought to remedy the appalling treatment of foster children in Baltimore. The hotly contested suit was settled in 1988 when the parties entered into a consent decree that mandated changes in virtually every aspect of Baltimore's foster care system.
Several attorneys who have worked with Grimm point to his knack for balancing the needs of individual children with those of the group.
"Bill possesses the rare ability to come up with strategies that will change the life of just one child or the lives of a thousand children," said Casey Trupin, co-counsel in the Braam case. "He never shies away from working on behalf of an individual child, even if he is facing a deadline for a brief in a class action, an article for a law journal, or an argument in court."
Grimm's skill as an attorney, litigator, and child advocate is matched only by his passion. He has been known to explode at the latest atrocity committed against a child, pounding his desk or shouting a few select expletives to express his dismay and frustration.
"Bill is a veritable reservoir of passion. And in the courtroom or during depositions, he utterly overwhelms the opposing counsel with his knowledge and expertise," said Tim Farris, a partner in Brett & Daugert in Bellingham, WA and co-counsel in Braam.
In his letter supporting Grimm's nomination for the Kutak-Dodds Prize, Farris wrote, "If Bill Grimm is not the finest, most committed and most ethical children's rights attorney in America, I don't know who it would be."
Grimm was presented with the award at the NLADA Exemplar Awards Dinner June 7 at the Capitol Hilton, Washington, DC.
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