Denis Murphy Award
The Ohio Legal Assistance Foundation presents two awards annually - the OLAF Presidential Award for Pro Bono Service - to applaud accomplishments in the pro bono arena - and The Denis Murphy Award - to recognize outstanding advocacy in Ohio's legal aid societies.
The Denis Murphy Award was created in 1998 to honor OLAF's founding board president. The award is given each year and is intended to recognize outstanding leadership and advocacy within Ohio's legal aid societies.
Past Award Recipients
Ross Collins "Col" Owens is the 2007 Denis Murphy Award recipient.
(Left to right) Col Owens, 2007 Denis Murphy Award recipient with David C. Weiner, OLAF Board President and Partner with Squires Sanders and Dempsey.
Ross Collins "Col" Owens began his legal aid career shortly after graduating from Boston University College of Law in 1977 when he started at the Office of Kentucky Legal Services Programs where he served as a legislative advocate and later as executive director. Col now serves as a senior attorney with the Legal Aid Society of Southwest Ohio where he has worked for more than 22 years, specializing in public policy advocacy work to support clients who are pursuing self-sufficiency through employment. Col has become recognized as a state and national expert in legal aid policy reform advocacy and has worked on healthcare, child care, child support, workforce development, welfare, education, unemployment compensation, transportation and tax credit issues.
Col serves as a consumer representative on Governor Strickland's State Coverage Initiative (SCI) healthcare reform team as well as on the SCI Advisory Committee. The team is developing a plan to achieve the governor's goal of providing healthcare coverage to half of Ohio's uninsured by 2011. "This is very challenging but rewarding work," says Col. "The potential is there to provide healthcare coverage to hundreds of thousands of legal services-eligible citizens."
In 1999, as co-chair of the Ohio Family Coverage Coalition, Col helped secure a Medicaid coverage expansion to the entire indigent population of Ohio, eventually providing coverage for more than 80,000 poverty-level working parents. The Coalition has since worked to preserve that expansion, and has paved the way for Governor Strickland's State Coverage Initiatives process.
As a founding member of the Hamilton County Department of Job and Family Services Human Services Planning Committee, Col initiated programs to encourage use of support services like Medicaid, food stamps, and child support by low-wage employers. Col and the committee also worked to reduce the number of people rejected from Temporary Assistance for Needy Families. "This is only part of the work," he says, but he is encouraged; "Both projects have achieved some demonstrable successes, although much remains to be done."
Col was previously recognized with the Milt Tenenbaum Community Service Award in 2002 for outstanding human services advocacy, and he received an Outstanding Community Impact Award from the United Way of Greater Cincinnati in 2007. He also serves as an Adjunct Professor at the University of Cincinnati College of Law where he teaches "Poverty and the Law." Col has written, co-written, and edited numerous texts on poverty and law, many of which have become seminal policy opinions in Kentucky and Ohio.
Thomas Weeks is the 2005 Denis Murphy Award recipient.
(Left to right) Thomas Weeks, 2005 Denis Murphy Award recipient and Executive Director of Ohio State Legal Services Association, with David C. Weiner, OLAF Board President and Partner with Squires Sanders and Dempsey.
Tom is the executive director of Ohio State Legal Services Association (OSLSA), which provides support services to all of Ohio's legal aid societies. OSLSA, headquartered in Columbus, is also the parent of Southeastern Ohio Legal Services, a legal aid society providing free legal representation to low-income clients in 30 counties located throughout central and southeastern Ohio. The Award was presented on Thursday, December 1, 2005 during the Foundation's quarterly board meeting by David C. Weiner, a partner in the Cleveland office of Squire, Sanders & Dempsey and the Foundation's Board President. View the press release. Visit the OSLSA website to learn more about OSLSA.
Joseph R. Tafelski is the 2004 Denis Murphy Award recipient.
(Left to right) David C. Weiner, OLAF Board President and Partner with Squires Sanders and Dempsey, Joseph Tafelski, 2004 Denis Murphy Award recipient and Executive Director of Advocates for Basic Legal Equality, and Bob Clyde (far left), OLAF Executive Director.
Long-time legal aid advocate Joseph R. Tafelski is the 2004 recipient of the Ohio Legal Assistance Foundation's (OLAF) Denis Murphy Award. Tafelski is the executive director of Advocates for Basic Legal Equality, Inc. (ABLE), which is headquartered in Toledo and, with its affiliate, Legal Aid of Western Ohio, provides legal aid services in 32 northwest and west central Ohio counties. The Award was presented on Thursday, December 3, 2004 during the Foundation's quarterly board meeting by David C. Weiner, a partner with Squire, Sanders & Dempsey in Cleveland and the Foundation's Board President. View the press release.
Former OLAF president Tom Chema congratulates Denis Murphy who was given The 1998 OLAF Presidential Award. Murphy, the inaugural OLAF board president was honored with an award bearing his name.
Jeanne Deimling Johns of Advocates for Basic Legal Equality was the 2003 Denis Murphy Award recipient. In 2002, Stephanie M. Jackson and Harold L. Williams, attorneys at the Legal Aid Society of Cleveland, shared the Ohio Legal Assistance Foundation's Denis Murphy Award for outstanding service in a legal aid society. The 2000 honoree was Gary Smith, who served as litigation director for Ohio State Legal Services Association. The 1999 honoree was Ken Curtin from the Columbus Legal Aid Society.