Cynthia Orr to Receive 2014 Robert C. Heeney Award from NACDL
The National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers will recognize Cynthia Hujar Orr with the Robert C. Heeney Award at the Foundation for Criminal Justice’s gala, “Celebrating Liberty’s Last Champions: Guardians of the Constitution” in August.
The award, one of the organization’s most prestigious, is given every year to an NACDL member who best exemplifies the goals and values of the organization and of the legal profession. It is named after the 18th president of the NACDL, and been awarded to an attorney every year since 1981, including Gerry Goldstein in 1991. NACDL President Jerry J. Cox will give the award to Orr during the Annual Meeting and CLE Seminar in Philadelphia.
Orr was president of the organization from 2009 to 2010. During her tenure, the organization took on New York’s inadequate indigent defense services and the federal government’s lack of transparency in proceedings for people detained in Guantanamo Bay. The organization also released a major report with the Heritage Foundation on overcriminalization. Orr has served in every officer position in NACDL, and currently serves as Fifth Circuit Vice Chair to NACDL’s Amicus Curiae Committee and as a member of NACDL’s Champion Advisory Board, and as a member of NACDL’s Death Penalty, Corrections, Forfeiture Abuse, Fourth Amendment Advocacy, and Discovery Reform Committees.
The National Association of Criminal Defense Attorneys is dedicated to ensuring justice and due process for persons accused of crime and fostering the integrity, independence and expertise of the criminal defense profession.
