At MJF’s Awards Celebration on September 30, 2025, we honored six members of the legal community, including one student from each law school, for their pro bono and public interest legal work. Journalist and author Lee Hawkins was the keynote speaker for the event.

The award recipients:

Private Practice
m boulette
Taft Stettinius & Hollister LLP

Direct Service
Art Wolf
Justice North

Advocate
Ash Tifa
OutFront Minnesota

Plunkett Christenson Law Student Volunteer Awards

Sarah Etheridge
University of St. Thomas School of Law

Erin Kaplan
Mitchell Hamline School of Law

Liddy Patterson
University of Minnesota Law School

About our keynote speaker:

Lee Hawkins is the author of I Am Nobody’s Slave: How Uncovering My Family’s History Set Me Free, an introspective journey into his family history, tracing its roots to pre-Revolutionary America. Utilizing genetic testing, investigative reporting, and historical documentation, Mr. Hawkins explores 400 years of his family’s lineage, revealing the intertwined lives of Black and White families, their resilience and sufferings, and the impact of historical trauma.

Mr. Hawkins is an American investigative journalist and author who was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in 2022. A former reporter for The Wall Street Journal, where he worked for 19 years, Mr. Hawkins covers various dimensions of the entrepreneurship, corporate, and investing worlds, focusing on the generational effects of economic discrimination, including racial covenants, land theft, and the impact of economically motivated historical homicides on families of color. His most recent work documents the lives of Black American descendants of slavery and Jim Crow survivors, exploring the intergenerational impact of racial violence and racism on their families. His reporting also addresses those affected by multiple adverse childhood experiences and childhood trauma, highlighting its long-term effects on health and life expectancy.

His longform podcast series, What Happened in Alabama?, was named a “Best Podcast” by The Guardian and Amazon/Audible and was “Editor’s Choice” among Amazon/Audible’s History genre podcasts. He is also the creator and host of the 2025 APM audio series Unlocking the Gates: How the North Led Housing Discrimination in America. Raised in Maplewood, Minnesota and the historic Rondo community in St. Paul, Minnesota, Mr. Hawkins has been an active advocate for nonviolent social change, inspired by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. He holds a B.A. in Political Science from the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

Donations made at the event support our Summer Fellowship Program, which is MJF’s longest running program.