Washington, DC (January 29, 2015) – National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers (NACDL) Past President Bruce M. Lyons will receive the Broward Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers' (BACDL) Harry Gulkin Award on February 5, 2015. Lyons has been a member of BACDL since its founding. The award will be presented at the BACDL Annual Installation Dinner in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. The Gulkin Award is a significant honor given each year to "a member of the bar who embodies integrity, gentility, and is a lawyer of the highest quality."

The 1997 recipient of NACDL’s Robert C. Heeney Award, Lyons served as President of NACDL from 1986-87 and currently serves as Secretary for the Foundation for Criminal Justice (FCJ). He has previously served the FCJ as both Vice President and Treasurer. And he is a past Chair of the American Bar Association’s Criminal Justice Section. A nationally-renowned lecturer and author on a variety of criminal law subjects, Lyons’ law practice is based out of Fort Lauderdale, Florida, where he heads the Law Offices of Bruce M. Lyons. He received both his undergraduate and J.D. degrees from the University of Miami.

NACDL President Theodore Simon said: "I am proud and fortunate to say I have known and worked with Bruce for more than 30 years and share in the widely-held belief that he is the model of a criminal defense lawyer whose commitment to his clients, the Constitution, and the calling that criminal defense work is noble and necessary is unsurpassed."

NACDL Executive Director Norman L. Reimer said: "Consistent with his last name, Bruce is a lion of the profession – a fierce defender of the rights of the accused and a tenacious advocate.   The FCJ and NACDL salute him on this splendid and well-deserved award."

For more information about the February 5, 2015 BACDL installation dinner, please see the event page of the Broward Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers. And for more information about the Harry Gulkin Award, including a list of past recipients, please click here.

Contacts

NACDL Communications Department

The National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers is the preeminent organization advancing the mission of the criminal defense bar to ensure justice and due process for persons accused of crime or wrongdoing. A professional bar association founded in 1958, NACDL's many thousands of direct members in 28 countries – and 90 state, provincial and local affiliate organizations totaling up to 40,000 attorneys – include private criminal defense lawyers, public defenders, military defense counsel, law professors and judges committed to preserving fairness and promoting a rational and humane criminal legal system.