November 21, 2008 2:10 PM

Florida Public Interest Lawyer Honored at Skadden

Posted by Ben Hallman

In addition to his day job as one of the best-known public interest lawyers in America, Morris Dees plays a mean harmonica.

Dees, the cofounder of the Southern Poverty Law Center in Montgomery, Ala., showed off his "blues harp" skills last night in an unlikely setting—the Times Square headquarters of Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom. Dees was in New York to present an award that bears his name: the Morris Dees Justice Award, an annual prize that honors outstanding public interest lawyers.

The evening began with cocktails and hors d'oeuvres in a brightly lit banquet room. Willie King, an Alabama blues musician flown in for the occasion, entertained the small crowd. As guests chatted, King, who wore a red hat that said “revolution,” wandered the room, playing his vintage Fender Stratocaster to the mostly suit-and-tie audience.

The ceremony itself was brief. Vaughn Williams, a Skadden partner who helps oversee the Skadden Fellowship program, said a few words, followed by Dees. Then, Kenneth Randall, the dean of the University of Alabama School of Law—the sponsor of the event along with Skadden—introduced Cheryl Little, the 2008 award winner.

Little is the executive director of the Florida Immigrant Advocacy Center, a Miami-based organization with a broad immigrant rights agenda that includes documenting instances of abuse at immigrant detention centers and representing unaccompanied immigrant minors held in detention in Florida. In accepting her award, Little called the Bush administration to task for tacitly supporting and at times encouraging anti-immigrant sentiment. “The war on terror has become a war on immigrants,” she said. Little said that anti-immigrant sentiment has helped create a situation where immigrants are afraid to report crimes against them for fear of being deported. In one Florida community, she said, predators target Guatemalans, a practice common enough that locals have given it a name: "Guac-bashing."

After Little spoke, the mood quickly brightened, with Dees on harmonica joining King and his band. The performance deserved, perhaps, a bigger audience. An informal headcount by a reporter in attendance suggested that fewer than 40 guests—and no more than a handful of Skadden lawyers—attended the ceremony.
   
The two previous recipients of the Morris Dees Justice Award were U.S. District Judge William Wayne Justice, of the Eastern District of Texas, and Arthur Read, general counsel for Friends of Farmworkers, based in Philadelphia.

Photo: Willie King and Morris Dees jam at the 2007 Morris Dees Justice Awards. Photo courtesy of Julie L. Cohen.

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