Brilliant, dedicated, collaborator, mentor, leader. These are the words most used to describe Nancy Lopez, retired Executive Director of Washington Council of Lawyers. In her tenure, Nancy formed and shaped Washington Council of Lawyers into what we are today. Her insight, wisdom, experience, flexibility, and skill are just some of the reasons we are thrilled to recognize her with our Justice Impact Awards Legacy Award. Rarely given (it’s only been awarded twice before), it is reserved for those individuals who don’t just go above and beyond, but make a substantial and exemplar impact on access to justice in DC and pro bono and public interest in our community.

Nancy brings her vast experience to everything she does. She began her career as a law clerk in the D.C. Court of Appeals. She was then an associate at Steptoe LLP before becoming the pro bono coordinator and a supervising attorney at DC Legal Aid. In 2002, Nancy shifted from the paid practice of law to focus on her family, maintaining her connection to the legal field through volunteer efforts. In 2010, she returned to the professional sphere as the Executive Director of the Washington Council of Lawyers, bringing her passion for justice and service to a new leadership role.

Over the next eleven years, Nancy shaped the organization into the public-interest voice in our community while building our most iconic programming. Nancy recognized the need for high-quality, affordable professional development for public-interest and pro bono lawyers. She grew attendance at our 2-day intensive Trial Advocacy training to reach more lawyers. Then she expanded that single training program into our Litigation Skills Series, offering additional focused, stand-alone trainings on topics such as public speaking, legal writing, depositions, exhibits, impeachment, and trauma-informed representation.  By developing and using fact patterns likely to be encountered in their public interest representation, Nancy made Litigation Skills the go-to skills training for our community.

One of our most enduring traditions is the annual Summer Pro Bono & Public Interest Forum. While Nancy did not create this event, she does credit it with sparking her interest in pro bono work when she attended as a Steptoe summer associate. Building on this inspiration, Nancy grew the Forum into an essential avenue to exposing summer associates and summer interns to the wealth of organizations doing pro bono in DC. We have hosted many important figures and legal luminaries as keynote speakers for the Summer Forum, but for Nancy, her most memorable moment was hosting Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg as the keynote speaker of the 2017 Summer Forum.

She also brought back a staple of Washington Council of Lawyers community-building with the Dinner & Discussion series. When asked, Nancy said she is “perhaps most proud of our Looking Into Low Bono series that resulted in the creation of DC Refers. A panel series that was more than ‘just’ talk – it culminated in the creation of a new nonprofit focused on advancing access to justice for people of modest means in DC. We filled a gap in the legal community and connected solo practitioners with ways to give back that make sense for them!” Nancy continues to serve on the board of DC Refers, bringing new ideas and new ways to serve our community.

One of the most challenging times our country faced was the global pandemic that began in late 2019 and caused a global shutdown in early 2020. The years that followed brought unprecedented obstacles to providing legal services, unimaginable stress and anxiety to our community, and the need for new and innovative approaches to our work. Nancy took it all in her stride and ultimately strengthened the organization, created new ways of providing service, implemented new technologies, and expanded our reach to a national level. She did all this while making sure her staff was cared for and her community knew the organization was there for support. Many of the changes instituted in response to the pandemic are still used today because they enable us to meet the community where they are and provide trainings, programs, discussions, and advocacy most effectively.

Never one to say no to a need, Nancy continues to dedicate her time and talent to our community as a pro bono volunteer with DC Volunteer Lawyers Project and a volunteer mediator for Multidoor Dispute Resolution at the Superior Court of the District of Columbia. She also chairs the Furniture Program and serves as a board member for ALIVE!.

Nancy was a stalwart leader of Washington Council of Lawyers with a passion for our mission and an unwavering commitment to access to justice work. We were fortunate to have her hand at the helm through unprecedented growth and once-in-a-lifetime challenges. She continues to support our work as a volunteer, and her vision lives on in the work we do every day.

We can’t wait to honor Nancy for her leadership, mentoring, and tireless support for Washington Council of Lawyers. Pro bono and public-interest law in the District wouldn’t be the same without her compassion and guidance.

Join us in celebrating Nancy and all our award recipients at our Justice Impact Awards on December 5. Share your congratulations on social media using #JusticeImpactAwards24.