We are excited to share that long-term AWA board member, and our current Membership Chairperson, Katie Lasky, has received the LSBA 2013 Leah Hipple McKay Memorial Award for Outstanding Volunteerism. The award is in memory of Leah Hipple McKay, LSBA member and wife of former LSBA President Michael W. McKay of Baton Rouge. The award recognizes Louisiana attorneys and judges who have made significant long-term contributions in volunteerism. Katie received the award during the LSBA Annual Meeting in Destin, Florida.

Katie is an attorney with the firm Jones, Swanson, Huddell & Garrison, L.L.C., and has been practicing law since 2003 in the fields of complex commercial and bankruptcy litigation. She received her undergraduate degree, magna cum laude, in 1998 from Cornell University and her Juris Doctor degree, cum laude, in 2003 from Georgetown University Law Center. Katie chairs the board of directors of the New Orleans Pro Bono Project. From 2007-11, she was a 100-plus-hour volunteer with the New Orleans Pro Bono Project. She received the LSBA’s 2006 Pro Bono Publico Award for her pro bono service to Louisiana’s indigent. She has routinely for 10 years served lunch at Ozanam Inn, a New Orleans homeless shelter, and has regularly volunteered to provide notarial services at homeless outreach centers in New Orleans. She took on a three-year volunteer commitment (2003-06) through the Boys Hope Girls Hope program. She built chicken coops for community gardens as part of her work with Hands On New Orleans in the recovery effort after Hurricane Katrina. Following the hurricane, she spent nearly two years providing weekly legal intake interviews and services for the Common Ground organization. She also was instrumental in starting the “Food from the Bar” program in New Orleans, designed to help lawyers support local food banks in their efforts to feed children during the summer months.

Congratulations Katie!