One outstanding attorney is selected each year by the New York State Bar Association to receive the Haywood Burns Award. For 2005, Laurie Lambrix, who heads up the Fair Housing Enforcement Project of Monroe County Legal Assistance Center (MCLAC), will receive the award for her outstanding civil rights work.

“Laurie's work throughout her career, and particularly her fair housing advocacy the last several years, epitomize the values and efforts that the Burns Award was meant to recognize,” stated the nomination form submitted by the Greater Rochester Association for Women Attorneys.

It is truly an honor to have an upstate attorney receive this special award, named after the late Professor Burns of the City University of New York Law School at Queens College. With a reputation as one of the best civil rights attorneys ever, Burns was also considered a top-notch professor by his students. He was killed in the 1990s in a car accident in South Africa while helping Mandela draft a new constitution for the county.

Lambrix, a native Rochesterian, completed her law degree at the University of Colorado Law School in 1986. She worked on Navajo Reservation in New Mexico from 1986-1989. Returning to Rochester in 1990, Lambrix joined MCLAC, concentrating in housing and landlord/tenant matters.

Convening meetings with numerous community organizations to educate them about the unaddressed fair housing problems her Monroe County clients faced, Lambrix was instrumental in identifying the need for local fair housing enforcement. These efforts evolved into the formation of the Monroe County Fair Housing Coalition, which Lambrix led for several years.

In 1998, a federal grant allowed MCLAC to devote resources to develop the Fair Housing Enforcement Project. With relentless energy, Lambrix launched this project, publicizing discriminatory practices and litigating on behalf of wronged plaintiffs.

The project handles about 50 fair housing cases a year, including federal lawsuits that have brought settlements totaling $660,000 in damages.

In addition to financial settlements and injunctive relief awarded to plaintiffs, the Fair Housing Enforcement Project has helped to change the culture in the community with regard to discriminatory housing practices. It is the tireless efforts of Lambrix that have spread the word that illegal landlord tactics will not be tolerated and that tenants have somewhere to turn for help.

Lambrix was also involved in settling a dispute where a landlord refused to renew the lease of a Middle Eastern man following the terrorist attacks of 9/11.

Laurie will accept her award Friday, January 28, 2005, in New York City.