Marjorie J. Peerce, managing partner of Ballard Spahr’s New York office, will receive the New York Council of Defense Lawyers’ (NYCDL) prestigious Norman S. Ostrow Award in recognition of her work to support the organization’s mission: the defense of liberty and preservation of individual rights.
The Council, a premier defense lawyers’ organization comprising New York’s top white collar defense practitioners, will present the award to Margie at an event September 18 at Cipriani 42nd Street.
Margie serves as Chair of the NYCDL Rules Committee, which addresses rule changes in the federal courts in New York and nationally. She is a past President of the NYCDL and formerly served as Chair of its Sentencing Guidelines Committee, a position in which she prepared regular submissions on the guidelines to the U.S. Sentencing Commission and testified before the panel on two occasions.
NYCDL’s mission includes protecting individual rights through education; supporting the criminal defense function by enhancing the quality of defense representation; taking positions on important defense issues; promoting study and research of the criminal justice system; and promoting the proper administration of criminal justice.
Among her many past and current professional leadership positions, Margie is co-Chair of the Sentencing Committee of the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers and serves on its task force addressing the trial penalty—harsher sentences commonly imposed on defendants who decline plea bargains. She is also a member of the oversight committee for the Criminal Justice Act Panel for the Eastern District of New York, a group of qualified and court-approved attorneys who represent indigent defendants in federal criminal cases. Margie formerly served as Chair of the Board of Directors of the 23,000-member New York City Bar Association.
The Ostrow Award is the latest in a long succession of accolades for Margie for her career accomplishments and her service to the profession and community. She has been ranked as one of New York City’s leading white collar litigators for the past nine consecutive years by Chambers USA, a prominent and highly respected guide to the legal industry worldwide. Margie received Ballard Spahr’s Alan J. Davis Award in 2015 for her extensive pro bono work on and leadership of the Clemency Project, a Department of Justice effort to rectify overly harsh prison sentences for nonviolent federal offenders.
For media inquiries, please contact Bill Shralow at 215.864.8195.