On August 4, Professor of Clinical Law Bryan Stevenson received the American Bar Association’s highest honor, the ABA Medal, during the organization’s annual meeting. “We are proud to add Bryan Stevenson to the distinguished list of ABA Medal winners for his outstanding leadership and tireless efforts in protecting basic human rights for the most vulnerable in American society,” said ABA President Hilarie Bass in an ABA press release. “Bryan has spent his career in service of others and is a widely acclaimed public interest lawyer dedicated to helping the poor, the incarcerated and the condemned.”
Stevenson is the founder and executive director of the Equal Justice Initiative (EJI), a nonprofit law organization that works for criminal justice reform through advocacy and representation. Last spring EJI opened the National Memorial for Peace and Justice, the nation’s first memorial dedicated to the victims of slavery, lynching, and racial segregation, and the Legacy Museum: From Enslavement to Mass Incarceration, which reexamines the narrative of racial difference in the United States.
In May Stevenson delivered the keynote address at NYU Law’s JD Convocation. “Don’t ever think that your grades are a measure of your capacity to change the world, because they’re not,” he told graduates. “Don’t ever think your income is a measure of your capacity to change the world, because it’s not.”
Follow Stevenson's Convocation remarks in full in this video:
Posted August 3, 2018; updated August 6, 2018