The American College of Bankruptcy has selected City Bar Justice Center (the Justice Center) as the 2024 recipient of its Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Excellence Award. The Justice Center supports access to justice for New Yorkers struggling with poverty and systemic socioeconomic barriers by leveraging the volunteered time and expertise of the New York City legal community. Among the many worthy candidates, the Justice Center stood out based on the multi-dimensional nature of its efforts and its DEI advocacy in our industry. The Committee believes not only that Justice Center is a more than worthy recipient of the DEI Excellence Award, but that its work communicates an important message: namely, that bar associations in other major metropolitan areas can and should successfully implement broad-based, bankruptcy-related DEI programs.

The College will present the award on Wednesday, September 18, 2024, at its All Fellows Luncheon at the Hyatt Regency Seattle in Seattle, Washington.

The Award was established by the College's Board of Directors in 2022 to recognize "demonstrated extraordinary commitment to and achievements realized in diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives by one or more individuals or an organization." The inaugural recipients of the Award in October 2022 were Judges Jeffery Hopkins and Laurel Isicoff, Co-Chairs of our pioneering Select Commission on Diversity, Equity and Inclusion, and the 2023 recipient was "Just the Beginning: A Pipeline Organization."

Please join us in congratulating the Justice Center for its important work.

Hon. Erithe A. Smith

Paul E. Harner

Co-Chairs

Standing Committee on Diversity, Equity and Inclusion