Clinical Professor Receives Victim Advocacy Award

Clinical professor and director of the Crime Victim Litigation Clinic (CVLC), Meg Garvin, was awarded the 2021 Hardy Myers Victim Advocacy Award by the Oregon Crime Victims Law Center. A celebratory presentation and fundraiser will be held online on April 21, 2021.

The award is in honor of Hardy Myers, who served as Oregon Attorney General from 1997 to 2009. “Hardy Myers was an amazing statesman, and a visionary when it came to victims’ role in criminal justice,” Garvin stated. “I had the privilege of observing his skills most acutely while working on Oregon victims’ rights provisions. Observing him taught me about the power of community: how the community can build better law and how good laws help the community. To be honored with an award named after him is deeply meaningful. On top of that – to receive it from the Oregon Crime Victim Law Center, an organization whose lawyers and advocates work every day to protect victims’ rights – is humbling.”

“We are so proud of Professor Garvin and her work to advocate on behalf of crime victims around the nation and the world,” said Lewis & Clark Law Dean Jennifer Johnson. “Our Crime Victims Clinic is at the forefront of this important area of law.”

Garvin has worked in crime victim rights since 2003 and is recognized as a leading expert on the issue. Aside from her role as clinical professor and director for CVLI, she is also the executive director for the National Crime Victim Law Institute (NCVLI), and serves on Oregon’s Chief Justice’s Criminal Justice Advisory Committee. Last year she received the Frank Carrington Crime Victim Attorney Award from the ABA Criminal Justice Section for her work.

“I am grateful to be part of a growing national community that works together to fight for victims’ voices in criminal justice,” said Garvin as she explained the trajectory of her work. “When I started it felt a bit lonely; now, there are talented and dedicated lawyers and advocates across the country that brainstorm together, cross-refer victims, and readily share resources. On the personal level, I am most grateful that even though I have been doing this work since 2003, every day I have the opportunity to learn – to learn about the law, about human resilience, about the power of listening.”

Many people have inspired Garvin throughout her career as a crime victim rights advocate, including faculty, attorneys, and the survivors she works to protect. “Professor Doug Beloof invited me into this work when he offered me a job in 2002 and my life has been positively changed because of that invitation,” Garvin states. “Also Keli Luther, an amazing lawyer from Arizona, who was also my dearest colleague in my earliest years doing this work. She and I would brainstorm on weekends and without her I don’t think I would be doing this work. Since then each of my co-workers at NCVLI has inspired me because they each bring unique skills and passions to this work, which help me see the world differently. Most powerfully, however, it is the survivors with whom I have had the chance to work who inspire me most. They trust me with a part of their story, a part of themselves. To have another person trust you, particularly when they have been hurt, makes you want to do and be better.”