New Mexico Criminal Defense Lawyers has selected UNM Law Professor Barbara Bergman, Pamela B. Minzner Chair in Professionalism, as the 2015 recipient of the Charles Driscoll Award.

This award, named for the New Mexico legal advocate and human rights activist, is the highest honor given by the organization. One of Bergman’s former students, Aja Oishi, stated Prof. Bergman "cultivates future lawyers who are logical, professional, and compassionate."

The Driscoll Award was presented on June 5 by the NMCDLA, which is an affiliate of the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers and has over five-hundred members across New Mexico.

“Barbara Bergman has proven she can lead and that the national and New Mexico legal communities will follow,” said Ousama Rasheed, the group’s immediate past president.

Bergman is a past president of the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers, serves on the Board of Trustees of the National Institute for Trial Advocacy and is president of the board for PB&J Family Services.

Recently, the Barbara Bergman Fund was established to honor her outstanding service to legal education in New Mexico as well as her commitment to the practice-ready development of law students' skills and her Innocence and Justice Project work in New Mexico.