Arthur N. Read, general counsel for Friends of Farmworkers, Inc., will receive the 2007 Morris Dees Justice Award at a reception at Skadden's New York office on Nov. 15. A tireless advocate for workers' rights, Read has secured increased freedoms for workers to organize, established model examples of compliance with migrant worker laws, obtained mandatory court interpreters for those with limited English proficiency and won many other legal protections for farmworkers.
The Morris Dees Justice Award was created in 2006 by Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom LLP and The University of Alabama School of Law to honor Dees, an Alabama graduate, for his life-long devotion to public service. Dees is the co-founder and chief trial counsel for the Southern Poverty Law Center in Montgomery, Ala. The award is given annually to a lawyer who has devoted his or her career to serving the public interest and pursuing justice, and whose work has brought about positive change in the community, state or nation.
Morris Dees will present the award on Nov. 15.