Attorney iconic for advancing human rights to receive award

Llewelyn G. Pritchard, of Seattle, Wash., will receive the Outstanding Service Award from The Fellows of the American Bar Foundation (ABF) at the 60th Annual Awards Reception and Banquet from 6-10 p.m. on Saturday, Feb. 6, at the San Diego Natural History Museum, Balboa Park, San Diego, California. Pritchard is a passionate advocate for civil rights with over five decades of public service that continues today.

Pritchard is an ABF Life Fellow and partner at Helsell Fetterman LLP. His earliest work on issues relating to diversity, sexual minorities and immigrant rights were groundbreaking in the legal community. Pritchard helped establish a minority scholarship program at the King County Bar Foundation, which has provided more than $2 million in scholarships to minority law students to date. He served as chair of the American Bar Association’s (ABA) Standing Committee on Legal Aid and Indigent Defendants, where he increased funding for the Legal Services Corporation. Pritchard helped to assess the needs of low-income and marginalized populations as chair of ABA’s Survey of Legal Needs. He is also an active board member of ABA’s Rule of Law Initiative (ROLI) and Center for Human Rights.

Pritchard’s public service career includes notable contributions to Seattle-area community affairs and the progression of LGBT rights. He is committed to keeping the arts alive locally, and helped found one of Seattle’s key arts funding boards. He has led several boards, including the Seattle Symphony and Allied Arts of Seattle, and served on the board of the Museum of Glass. Pritchard is a founding member of the advisory board for QLaw, a bar association in Washington dedicated to advancing access to justice for LGBT individuals. In 2010, he was honored with the National LGBT Bar Association’s Allies for Justice Award.

Other recipients of 2016 Fellows Awards at the San Diego event include Honorable John R. Tunheim and Barbara J. Gislason, Outstanding State Chair Award; Kimberlé W. Crenshaw, Outstanding Scholar Award; and Selma Moidel Smith, Life Fellow Achievement Award.

KPMG is the sponsor of the 2016 banquet, one of several events being hosted by The Fellows of the ABF during the ABA Midyear Meeting, Feb. 3-7, 2016. Linda Hirshman, lawyer, cultural historian, and author of New York Times bestseller, Sisters in Law: How Sandra Day O’Connor and Ruth Bader Ginsburg Went to the Supreme Court and Changed the World, will give keynote remarks.