Alumna Receives Kentucky Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers Clarence Darrow Prodigy Award
Molly Rose Green ’14 has been hard at work since she finished her time in law school. She has since moved to Kentucky, and received the Yale Initiative for Public Interest Law Fellowship. The focus of her year-long project was to help more people in Kentucky clear their criminal records. Prior to this position, she worked for Gerry Spence's Trial Lawyers College in Wyoming, and clerked for Judge Thomas Russell in Paducah, Kentucky. She is currently clerking for Judge Jane Stranch of the United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit.
Green’s impressive work has not gone without attention in her community. She was recently awarded the 2016 KACDL Clarence Darrow Prodigy Award by the Board of Directors of the Kentucky Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers. The award is given each year to an attorney “who has been practicing law for less than 5 years and has demonstrated precocious legal knowledge and criminal defense advocacy skills, as well as an uncompromising commitment to aggressively defending clients in the spirit and best tradition of Mr. Darrow.”
Green was selected as the 2016 recipient for her many contributions to the enactment and statewide implementation of HB 40, as well as the creation of the CleanSlate Kentucky website and the guidebook for members of the public, the numerous information sessions she conducted around the state, and the education sessions and guidebook she developed for lawyers representing clients seeking expungement.
“Last year, I received the Yale Initiative for Public Interest Law Fellowship and worked with the Department of Public Advocacy (the state public defender's office) to help increase expungement of criminal records in the state through legislative advocacy and community education,” said Green. “Kentucky passed its first felony expungement law in the middle of my fellowship, and I was able to criss-cross the state helping inform people of this new option.”
She received the prestigious award during KACDL’s Annual Criminal Defense Law Seminar and Conference Nov. 4, 2016, at The Galt House Hotel.
“I was honored to receive this award and to have worked with so many Kentuckians fighting for criminal justice reform,” said Green.
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