Legal Aid DC celebrated the 35th annual Servant of Justice Awards Dinner on April 29, 2025, bringing together some 750 supporters, friends, colleagues, and past clients to honor this year’s awardees and uplift Legal Aid’s work. The event raised a record-breaking $2.05 million for Legal Aid from generous sponsors and individual donors.
“This organization represents the best of the legal community and what we can accomplish when we come together,” Legal Aid DC Board President Nadira Clarke told the audience.
This year’s Servant of Justice Awards were given to two exceptional lawyers, Karen Dunn and Ben Wilson, whose leadership and commitment to public service have had a lasting impact on the District and the entire legal field. Legal Aid also recognized Oliver Jury and his pro bono work with the Klepper Prize for Volunteer Excellence and a group of tenant leaders from the Marbury Plaza apartment complex with the Partnership Award.
Karen Dunn, one of the nation’s top trial lawyers and Co-Chair of the Litigation Department at Paul, Weiss, has made public service a central piece of her career. Through her leadership on landmark civil rights cases and local DC justice initiatives, Ms. Dunn demonstrates an unwavering commitment to ensuring top legal services are accessible to those who need them most. She also serves as the co-executive director of the Center to Combat Hate, which brings impact litigation to confront and redress the full spectrum of hate-driven violence.
Alongside her co-counsel, Ms. Dunn won a groundbreaking verdict against neo-Nazi and white supremacist movement leaders responsible for racially motivated violence in Charlottesville, Virginia, in 2017. This pioneering civil rights case has been viewed as a model for future civil conspiracy claims against violent hate groups and inspired the 2023 HBO documentary “No Accident.”
Ms. Dunn has also focused on supporting District residents throughout her career. In 2016, alongside her co-lead counsel and husband Brian Netter, she secured an important victory for DC budget autonomy and home rule, which affirmed the right of DC government officials to control the city’s budget and paved the way for critical programs that support Legal Aid’s client community, including Access to Justice funding. Ms. Dunn also represented a group of parents who sued a DC organization after they alleged their children were sexually abused at its preschool.
A Fellow of the American College of Trial Lawyers, Ms. Dunn has successfully led several of the most high-stakes and industry-defining trials over the past decade. She has served in all three branches of government, including as an Assistant U.S. Attorney in the Eastern District of Virginia, Associate White House Counsel, and in a senior communications role in the U.S. Senate, and served as a law clerk to Judge Merrick B. Garland of the DC Circuit Court of Appeals and to Justice Stephen G. Breyer of the US Supreme Court. She also serves on the Boards of DC Appleseed Center for Law and Justice and the National Women’s Law Center.
Ms. Dunn has been recognized for her leadership role across the legal industry. She has been named a “Litigator of the Year” by The American Lawyer for her role in “high-stakes, high-profile and hard-fought” cases and has been recognized as a “Band 1” trial lawyer and a “Star Individual” by Chambers and Partners. She has also been named one of Elle Magazine’s “Most Compelling Women in Washington” and one of Benchmark Litigation’s “Top 10 Women in Litigation” and “Top 100 Trial Lawyers.”
Ben Wilson is the President of the Board of the DC Bar Foundation and the former Chair of
Beveridge & Diamond, where he was one of the first African Americans to lead a major law firm. Few can match his record of community leadership, which has included chairing the boards of the Environmental Law Institute, the Healthy Babies Project, and the Washington Lawyers Committee for Civil Rights & Urban Affairs, as well as the D.C. Board of Elections & Ethics. Mr. Wilson cofounded the Environmental Law program at Howard University School of Law, where he has taught since 2004.
Mr. Wilson has also engaged in significant pro bono work on behalf of District residents. For example, he helped obtain a settlement for the family of Carl Dupree, a Gallaudet University student who was killed by campus police in 1990. In addition, he was also a member of the team that represented a D.C. public housing resident and her minor daughter who suffered from lead poisoning, in a case that led to new requirements for the removal of lead-based paint in federally-funded public housing.
Mr. Wilson is perhaps best known for his advancement of diversity in the legal profession. Known as the “Dean of Diversity,” he has been famously accessible to young lawyers seeking positions at law firms and companies, and dozens of Black law firm partners and general counsels credit his mentorship and assistance in helping them in their careers. He formalized this through the establishment of the African American General Counsel and Managing Partner Networks in 2012 and the Diverse Partners Network in 2008.
Mr. Wilson has received numerous awards and honors, including the ABA Lifetime Achievement Award in Environmental Law and Policy (2024); an Honorary Doctor of Humane Letters, Dartmouth College (2023); the Justice Potter Stewart Award, Council for Court Excellence (2022); the American Lawyer Lifetime Achievement Award (2021); the Annice M. Wagner Pioneer Award from District of Columbia Bar (2020); the MASKED Award, United Negro College Fund (2018); the Thurgood Marshall Legacy Award from the Thurgood Marshall College Fund (2016); and the Wiley Branton Award, Washington Lawyers’ Committee (2009).
Oliver Jury is an Associate at Blank Rome who has become a standout part of Legal Aid DC’s Pro Bono Program. Each year, the Klepper Prize recognizes an early-career attorney who has volunteered their time to make outstanding contributions to Legal Aid. Oliver has gone above and beyond — taking on pro bono cases across practice areas and strengthening Legal Aid and Blank Rome’s partnership.
Two of Legal Aid DC’s most needed areas of pro bono support are housing and family law, and Oliver is one of the few attorneys who regularly takes on both types of cases. He also helps lead his firm’s efforts in the Housing Right to Counsel Project, which provides legal representation to low-income DC residents on the brink of eviction.
Oliver accepted four new pro bono case referrals from Legal Aid in 2024, and has previously worked with clients on issues spanning eviction defense and child custody. He has also become a leader within his firm and has encouraged several of his colleagues to get involved, multiplying his meaningful impact to Legal Aid and our clients.
Oliver is a graduate of the University of New Mexico and the American University Washington College of Law. During law school, Oliver served as an Articles Editor for the American University Law Review, a Dean’s Fellow in the Legal Writing Department, and a research assistant. Before law school, he mediated landlord-tenant disputes for Open Communities, a nonprofit organization that advocates for fair and affordable housing.
The Partnership Award recognizes extraordinary individuals or organizations who have helped advance Legal Aid DC’s mission of making justice real in the District. Tenant leaders from the Marbury Plaza apartment complex in Southeast received this year's Partnership Award in recognition of their advocacy and years-long fight to hold their landlord accountable for allowing the complex to fall into disrepair.
Legal Aid DC and Arnold & Porter represented an Ad Hoc Committee of 135 tenants in bankruptcy proceedings, advocating for financial compensation and assurances that tenants would not be forced out as Marbury Plaza changed hands. The tenants organized meetings, knocked on doors, kept their neighbors informed, prepared testimony, and helped Legal Aid mount the strongest possible case. Their commitment helped the team reach a settlement and take an important step for a better future for residents at Marbury Plaza.
Tomora Redman, president of the ad hoc committee, accepted the award on behalf of the tenants.
Alyse Adamson
Bill Isaacson
Kirra L. Jarratt
Molly Levinson
Emily Loeb
Ron Machen
Julius Redd
Jeannie Rhee
Leo Tucker
Skadden
Kirkland & Ellis LLP
Latham & Watkins LLP
Paul, Weiss
Covington & Burling LLP
Sidley Austin LLP
WilmerHale
Akin
Alston & Bird LLP
Arnold & Porter
Mayer Brown LLP
Pillsbury
Baker Botts, L.L.P.
Blank Rome LLP
Dentons
Gilbert LLP
Weil
Williams & Connolly LLP
Wilkie Farr & Gallagher LLP
ArentFox Schiff
Goodwin
Jenner & Block
Jones Day
Munger, Tolles & Olson
O'Melveny
Paul Hastings LLP
Simpson Thacher & Bartlett LLP
The Steptoe Foundation
Wiley Rein LLP
Bailey & Glasser LLP
Beveridge & Diamond PC
BCLP
Cleary Gottlieb
Cooley
Cozen O'Connor
Cravath, Swaine & Moore LLP
Debevoise & Plimpton
DLA Piper LLP
Epstein Becker Green
Foley Hoag LLP
Fried Frank
Hogan Lovells
Holland & Knight LLP
Hughes Hubbard & Reed LLP
Katten
Kelley Drye & Warren LLP
King & Spalding
McGuireWoods
Morgan, Lewis & Bockius
Morrison Foerster LLP
Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe
Ropes & Gray LLP
Venable LLP
Wilkinson Stekloff
Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati Foundation
Zuckerman Spaeder LLP
Bearstar Strategies
DiamondRock Hospitality Company
Econic Partners
Ernst & Young LLP (EY)
FTI Consulting
Host Hotels & Resorts
Marriott International
Northwestern Mutual
The Home Depot
The Levinson Group
Uber Technologies, Inc.
Ullico Inc.