Margaret Frye, staff attorney at Law Line of Vermont, and Jessica Radbord, staff attorney at Vermont Legal Aid, received the Vermont Bar Association President’s Award at the organization’s annual meeting on September 27 at Lake Morey Resort. The award is given at the discretion of the out-going president to recognize distinguished service to the Vermont Bar Association.
Amber Barber, matrimonial law attorney at Barber & Waxman and the out-going VBA president, presented the award “for their tireless efforts in serving the Vermont Bar Association.”
“In the aftermath of Tropical Storm Irene, we recognized the need to create a comprehensive disaster manual that will enable the bar to respond quickly in the event of another catastrophic event,” Barber said. “The task was not a small one, so I reached out to Jessica and Margaret. Despite the fact that they were already busy training many of us to serve the legal needs of those harmed by the storm, in addition to handling significant caseloads, they were more than willing, and actually energetic, to tackle this project.”
The Vermont Bar Association has shared the disaster manual to help bar associations and organizations in New York, New Jersey and Colorado in the wake of the massive hurricane and flooding disasters in those states.
Frye focuses her practice primarily in housing, consumer, and public benefits law. For most of 2012 and continuing through 2013, she served as the disaster relief attorney at Law Line to assist and represent low income Vermonters with legal problems following Tropical Storm Irene. Frye graduated from New England School of Law in Boston.
Radbord began her work at Vermont Legal Aid in August 2010 as the Vermont Poverty Law Fellow, primarily representing tenants in substandard housing. Her work swiftly shifted to disaster law after Tropical Storm Irene. As a staff attorney, Radbord continues her work with tenants and flood survivors, in addition to foreclosure defense and representation of tenants in subsidized housing. She is a graduate of Columbia Law School, where she was a Kent Scholar and a public interest award winner.
Vermont Legal Aid and Law Line of Vermont are nonprofit law firms that provide civil legal services primarily to low-income Vermonters throughout the state.