Anthony M. Fitzgerald Award for Excellence

Presentation of award remarks from CBF Board of Director member Namita Shah, Partner at Day Pitney:

Good evening. My name is Namita Shah. I am a partner at Day Pitney and a member of the board of the Connecticut Bar Foundation. It is a real privilege for me to present the Anthony Fitzgerald Award for Excellence on behalf of the Connecticut Bar Foundation to Jill Davies.

This award recognizes a Connecticut legal aid attorney for dedicated service and outstanding achievement in civil legal aid—particularly excellence in advocacy and a deep commitment to providing zealous and skilled representation to low-income clients.

This moment is especially meaningful to me because I have the honor of serving not only on the Foundation’s Board, but also on the Board of Greater Hartford Legal Aid. So I’ve had the opportunity to see Attorney Davies’ impact up close—and it is extraordinary.

For more than 40 years, Jill has dedicated her career to legal aid and to the pursuit of justice for those who need it most. At GHLA, she has been a steady, visionary leader, helping to build and sustain an organization that changes lives every single day.

But Jill’s influence reaches far beyond Hartford. In particular, she has helped shape how we, as a profession, understand and respond to domestic violence.  She has developed approaches that center on the lived experiences of survivors and is helping to set standards that are now recognized nationally. She has written extensively on these issues and co-authored a leading book on domestic violence advocacy. Because of her expertise, she is regularly called upon to train and speak to programs across the country, most recently in Ohio, Wisconsin, New York, Maryland, and Texas.

Thankfully for us, we have her right here in our back yard.

What also stands out is the depth of her commitment—to her clients, to her colleagues, and to the belief that our legal system can and must work for everyone.

On behalf of the Connecticut Bar Foundation—and really the entire legal community—thank you, Jill, for the integrity, compassion, and leadership you bring to this work every day. Your impact is profound, and it is deeply appreciated. Because of you, the promise of justice is not just something we talk about, but something more people are actually able to live.

You truly embody the spirit of the Fitzgerald Award and it is my great pleasure to present it to you.

Amy Eppler-Epstein has been a staff attorney at New Haven Legal Assistance since 1986, focusing primarily on housing law, with forays into family law/domestic violence, immigration, and re-entry work. 

Over the years she has argued before the CT Supreme Court to establish a right to shelter under the state constitution; advocated with nationwide impact to protect the rights of tenants post foreclosure; won a $2.845 million judgment in fair housing litigation in federal court; created a coalition to reform CT’s sex offender registration laws; developed a pro se DACA (deferred action for childhood arrivals) clinic to help immigrant youth; created an innovative method of legal services delivery through a school-based clinic; and litigated to protect licensed home day care providers from eviction. 

She is currently a visting clinical lecturer at Yale Law School where she teaches the Reentry Clinic. She graduated from Brown University and Yale Law School.

Award Accepted by Martha Stone, Executive Director of CCA.

Center for Children’s Advocacy is the largest children’s legal rights organization in New England. It was founded in 1997 on a $2,000 budget, in loaned office space over the boiler room at UConn Law School. In the 25 years since, CCA has grown to an organization with 25 staff and a nearly $3 million operating budget.

The CCA's mission is to protect and promote the legal rights of Connecticut’s low-income children and youth so they have equitable opportunities for good health, a quality education, and a successful transition to adulthood. CCA provides legal representation, training for professionals, and advocates for system reforms to ensure at-risk children’s basic needs are met and they receive appropriate services from the juvenile justice, education, child welfare, health care and court systems.

CCA is now the largest children’s legal rights organization in New England, with offices in Hartford, New Haven, and Bridgeport, and projects in Waterbury, Hamden, and Norwalk. Their Mobile Legal Office breaks down barriers to legal services by traveling to meet youth in their home communities.

Since its founding, CCA has provided individual legal services to over 5,000 children and youth. Over 20,000 children and youth have been impacted by their systemic advocacy. CCA has also brought about significant legislative reforms including:

• A redesign of the state’s system for runaways and truants, transforming it from a punitive to a treatment model;
• Expanded visitation for older children in foster care;
• Changes to camps and other programs so children with disabilities can participate in those programs;
• Increased number of youth living in family settings;
• A Settlement Agreement in Sheff v. O’Neill, which has dramatically increased Hartford children’s access to high quality, integrated schools;
• An overhaul of the state’s alternative school system to create equity in education resources; and
• An improved support system and access to shelter for homeless youth.

Debi is the first female Executive Director of Connecticut Legal Services (CLS). She oversees all departments including financial, administration, human relations, strategic planning, advocacy and legislative initiatives, and communications. Debi has held a variety of other roles within the organization since she joined in 2007, including Deputy Director, Regional Director of the Eastern Local Services Team and Director of Development. As a staff attorney, Debi practiced and litigated across a wide range of the organization’s practice units.

In addition to her work at CLS, Debi served as a Visiting Professor at Quinnipiac University School of Law, where she developed and directed the Health Law Clinic. She was selected as a Legal Services Corporation Fellow to run a year-long Poverty Law Clinic at the University of Connecticut School of Law and she is active in numerous community and legal networks.

Debi is a James W. Cooper Fellow of the Connecticut Bar Foundation, a member of the Advisory Council for the Office of Victim Services and a trainer for national seminars with the Shriver Center on Poverty Law. She has held several leadership roles at a large non-profit agency that serves the greater New Haven area, including President of the Board of Directors.

New Haven Legal Assistance Association, Inc. (NHLAA) is a nonprofit organization that was incorporated on April 7, 1964 to “secure justice for and to protect the rights of those residents of New Haven County unable to engage legal counsel.” NHLAA was one of the first legal services programs established and the federal government used it as a model for similar programs throughout the country. NHLAA is an office of attorneys, paralegals, and legal secretaries committed to protecting the rights and improving the lives of our client communities. Many of its staff have been with the organization for more than twenty years.

NHLAA offers free, high-quality legal services to people living in poverty in New Haven County and the Lower Naugatuck Valley. They strive to provide equal access to the justice system, enhance the rights and living conditions of their client community, and help that client community protect their own rights. NHLAA accomplishes these goals by providing legal advice, brief service, and full representation to individual clients; strategically prioritizing legal work that will make systemic improvements benefitting large numbers of low-income people; and engaging in community education and outreach. NHLAA represents seniors, people with mental and physical disabilities, children, domestic violence survivors, immigrants, low-wage workers, families at risk of homelessness, and individuals who face additional challenges to representing themselves, such as those with limited English proficiency.

The organization relies on private donations and grants to support its work.

The Connecticut Veterans Legal Center (CVLC) started the United States’ first medical-legal partnership with federal Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) in 2009. We work in interdisciplinary teams with mental health and medical clinicians to solve legal problems that affect veteran recovery. CVLC is the only medical-legal partnership to be co-located and staffed on a daily basis at a VA facility. To this end, CVLC provides free legal assistance to veterans who are in recovery from homelessness, mental illness and substance abuse to help them overcome legal barriers to housing, healthcare and income. The CVLC’s vision is for all military veterans in CT to live with adequate means, safe and secure housing, and affordable health care.

CVLC grew out of the volunteer work of Margaret Middleton and Howard Udell. Howard first came to the VA Connecticut’s Errera Community Care Center in 2007 as a volunteer. The Errera Center is a nationally-recognized VA facility providing mental health, substance abuse, housing and employment assistance to indigent veterans. When veterans learned Howard was an attorney, they started asking him for advice about their legal troubles. Soon a line would form by the elevator on days when Howard was coming in. Before long Howard was assisting thirty veterans on his own; he was walking proof of the unmet legal needs of veterans rebuilding their lives.

In 2009, Howard joined with Margaret to incorporate CVLC with seed funding from the Yale Initiative for Public Interest Law. The mission of the organization was, and remains, to help veterans recovering from homelessness and serious mental illness overcome legal barriers to housing, healthcare and income. CVLC now employs fourteen staff members. 

To date, CVLC has served more than 4,700 veterans -- helping them to resolve destabilizing legal problems. In 2014, CVLC added the VA’s Newington Facility as a second program delivery location and in 2017 added the CT Department of Veteran’s Affairs as its third site. In April 2015, CVLC proudly accepted the VA’s National Community Partnership Award for its groundbreaking medical-legal partnership with the VA CT’s Errera Community Care Center.  In 2017, CVLC was awarded the Community Partnership Award from the CT Psychological Association and the Pro Bono Partner award from Corporate Pro Bono Institute.

CVLC drafted and successfully lobbied for a state bill which grants veterans second chances to avoid jail and overcome mental health and substance abuse issues related to their service. In 2019, CVLC pro bono attorneys from Halloran & Sage were awarded the Hartford County Bar Association 2019 Pro Bono Award for their work with CVLC to provide pro bono representation to low-income veterans facing homelessness. And CVLC’s partnership with Sikorsky Aircraft and Teamsters Local 1150 was recognized with the 2019 Corporate Pro Bono Partner Award from the Pro Bono Institute. In 2020, CVLC launched its national policy initiative – The Veterans Inclusion Project – and will be publishing a legal practice manual on discharge upgrade cases in the near future. 

Jamey has more than 35 years of experience as an attorney and policy advocate in the areas of health care access, education, child welfare, and family economic security.  She provides day-to-day oversight of the organization agency, including administrative, financial, advocacy, personnel, strategic planning, communications, and legislative issues. She serves on the CBA Pro Bono Committee, the Judicial Branch Access to Justice Libraries Work Group, and the Advisory Board of the Connecticut Community Law Center. She is also a Fellow of the Connecticut Bar Foundation James W. Cooper Fellows Program. Previously, she was appointed by Governor Daniel Malloy to be the Child Advocate for the State of Connecticut in November, 2012. From 2008 to 2012, she was the Executive Director of Connecticut Voices for Children, where she worked on health, education, child welfare, and tax and budget issues, and led the organization’s legislative advocacy.  She was an attorney at GHLA for 26 years. During that time she was lead counsel in successful class action litigation to require the Connecticut Department of Social Services to provide adequate dental care to children in the Medicaid program.  Jamey Bell has a B.A. in Comparative Literature from the University of Michigan and a J.D. from Northeastern University School of Law.