American Bar Association Honors Gordon P. Erspamer of San Francisco with 2009 Pro Bono Publico Award for Outstanding Service

CHICAGO, July 17, 2009 – Gordon P. Erspamer, a lawyer with the San Francisco office of Morrison & Foerster, will be recognized with one of five 2009 Pro Bono Publico Awards from the American Bar Association Standing Committee on Pro Bono and Public Service.

Erspamer will receive his award on Monday, Aug. 3, at the Pro Bono Publico Awards Assembly Luncheon at noon at the Hyatt Regency Chicago, during the ABA Annual Meeting.

ABA President H. Thomas Wells Jr. will present the 2009 awards. “Gordon Erspamer is one of the heroes of the legal profession,” said Wells. “His pro bono work has resulted in acknowledgment of the validity of medical claims for veterans of the Korean Conflict and Viet Nam War as well as for those returned from Iraq and Afghanistan. To this work he brings passion and caring, resulting in restoring hope to these afflicted veterans.”

The Pro Bono Publico Awards honor individuals or organizations in the legal community that enhance the human dignity of others by improving or delivering volunteer legal services to the poor or disadvantaged.

Since 1980, Erspamer has maintained an active pro bono practice on behalf of veterans and veterans’ groups.  He has represented veterans in their claims against the government involving Agent Orange and atomic radiation.

A former member of the board of directors of the Contra Costa County Bar Association, he has received that bar’s President’s Award on behalf of himself and his firm in recognition of a legacy for providing access to justice through pro bono legal services in 2007.  In 2003 he received the Swords to Plowshares Profiles of Courage Award for being a tireless fighter for the rights of veterans.

He has also received the Dean K. Phillips Award for Advocacy from the Viet Nam Veterans Association, the Justice Award from the National Association of Radiation Survivors and was named Trial Lawyer of the Year by the Trial Lawyers for Public Justice.

Erspamer currently sits of the board of Swords to Plowshares, a leading non-profit organization providing housing, employment services and advocacy for veterans.

He earned his bachelor’s degree summa cum laude from Hamline University and his Juris Doctor from the University of Michigan Law School, where he was an associate editor and a note editor of the Law Review, and a member of Order of the Coif.

More information on the Pro Bono Publico Awards and the 2008 recipients is available at http://www.abanet.org/legalservices/probono/nav_awards.shtml.

With more than 400,000 members, the American Bar Association is the largest voluntary professional membership organization in the world.  As the national voice of the legal profession, the ABA works to improve the administration of justice, promotes programs that assist lawyers and judges in their work, accredits law schools, provides continuing legal education, and works to build public understanding around the world of the importance of the rule of law.

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