Edward L. O’Brien, founder and executive director emeritus of Street Law, Inc., was presented with the Isidore Starr Award for Excellence in Law-Related Education in Chicago, IL, on October 3, 2009.

October 14, 2009 | Chicago, IL

Chicago, IL — The American Bar Association (ABA) Division for Public Education presented Edward L. O’Brien, founder and executive director emeritus of Street Law, Inc., with the Isidore Starr Award for Excellence in Law-Related Education in Chicago, Illinois on October 3, 2009 during the 26th National Law-Related Education (LRE) Leadership Conference, “Building a Better Tomorrow: Youth, Citizenship, and Civic Engagement.” 

O’Brien is a founder and executive director emeritus of Street Law, Inc., a nonprofit organization dedicated to providing practical, participatory education about the law, democracy, and human rights. Street Law, Inc.’s curriculum is taught in over 40 major American cities, 40 countries worldwide, and on all seven continents. While a law student at Georgetown University Law Center in 1972, O’Brien started Street Law, “as a kernel of an idea,” notes Mary McClymont, executive director of Global Rights.

“Ed is a visionary who also has the smarts and skills to implement quality programs,” comments Margaret Fisher, Seattle University School of Law, who met O’Brien in 1977 while educating prison inmates about their constitutional rights and responsibilities as part of a Street Law clinic.

O’Brien conceptualized the Street Law clinic model, where law students receive academic credit and teach in area high schools and adult prisons. Today over 70 U.S. law schools and 40 foreign law schools have replicated the Street Law model. In 1985, O’Brien led efforts to develop Street Law programs in South Africa, educating people about human rights and democracy in the face of apartheid, and the country’s first democratic elections.

Rick Roe, a professor of law at Georgetown University Law Center, describes O’Brien as “dedicat[ing] his career to helping laypersons to learn the law that affects their daily lives and, in the process, to develop their literacy, expressive, critical thinking, and advocacy skills.”

O’Brien is the author and co-author of numerous articles and books, including Street Law: A Course in Practical Law, now in its eighth edition, as well as Human Rights For All, Democracy for All, and Practical Law for Correctional Personnel. His efforts have been recognized by Street Law, Inc. and the University of Natal in South Africa. In 2006, he completed an International Children’s Rights Master of Laws degree at the University of Fribourg in Switzerland. O’Brien has served on the Advisory Committee to the ABA Standing Committee on Public Education, and most recently, has worked with the National Campaign for the Civic Mission of Schools.

“Ed is a born teacher, with an easy manner, and always inspires the people with whom he works,” observes David McQuoid-Mason, director of Street Law South Africa. “[He] is truly one of the founders of the global movement in law-related rights education.”

The Isidore Starr Award for Excellence in Law-Related Education was established in 1983 by the ABA Division for Public Education to honor the “father of law related education.” Dr. Isidore Starr, 97 years young, presented the award in person to O’Brien. Past recipients include Jan Miller, Texas Law Focused Education, Inc., and Marshall Croddy, Constitutional Rights Foundation; and Lee Arbetman, Street Law, Inc.

With nearly 400,000 members, the ABA is the largest voluntary professional membership organization in the world. As the national voice of the legal profession, the ABA works to improve the administration of justice, promotes programs that assist lawyers and judges in their work, accredits law schools, provides continuing legal education, and works to build public understanding around the world of the importance of the rule of law in a democratic society.

The mission of the ABA Division for Public Education is to promote public understanding about the law and its role in society. To fulfill this mission, the Division produces programs, publications, and resources to educate youth, college and university students, and adults. To learn more about the ABA Division for Public Education, its programs, publications, and resources, visit http://www.abanet.org/publiced.

Source: American Bar Association Division for Public Education (Reproduced with permission)

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Topic: Civic & Law-Related Education