Posted November 7, 20241:11 pm
Vanetta Jamison, board president emeritus of The Legal Aid Society of Cleveland, was named the recipient of the National Legal Aid & Defender Association’s (NLADA) 2024 Mary Ellen Hamilton Award.
The award is given to “a legal services client or client community advocate who has provided extraordinary support to the delivery of legal assistance to low-income people, to increase involvement of low-income people in the fight for equal justice, or to enhance the involvement of low-income people in their cases,” according to the NLADA website. The award is named after NLADA co-founder and former board member, the late Mary Ellen Hamilton.
In 2004, Vanetta came to Legal Aid as a client, needing help with a divorce. At that time, she was pursuing a degree and raising her five sons.
“[Legal Aid] doesn’t tell you that you’re at the bottom of your bucket and you’ll never crawl out,” she said. “They’re like, ‘there’s a ladder somewhere, and we’re going to help you find it.’”
Vanetta then became a Legal Aid volunteer and a member of the Legal Aid Board of Directors in 2011. In 2016, Vanetta became Legal Aid board president, the first non-attorney to serve in this position. She served two terms as board president.
In 2018, she was awarded the Wings of Excellence Award by the Federal Executive Board and in 2023, she was honored with Legal Aid’s Louis Stokes Paragon Award at Legal Aid’s 118th annual meeting.
Vanetta continues to support Legal Aid as a volunteer, as well as serving veterans as a benefit specialist with the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs.
The Hamilton Award will be presented during the NLADA Annual Conference on November 15 in Atlanta, Georgia.
NLADA is the oldest and largest non-profit in the country committed to ensuring that legal services are available to those who cannot otherwise afford it. To learn more about NLADA visit www.nlada.org.