Washington, DC (2002, exact date unknown) -- Ephraim Margolin, a nationally renowned criminal defense attorney practicing in San Francisco, received the Lifetime Achievement Award from the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers at their annual meeting in San Francisco in early August. A Life Member of NACDL, Margolin served as the organization's president in 1988-89.
Born in Berlin, Margolin attended the Hebrew University in Jerusalem and then Yale Law School, where he received his LLB in 1952. He is the founding president of the California Attorneys for Criminal Justice, a recent past president of the California Academy of Appellate Lawyers, and advisory counsel to the American Civil Liberties Union of Northern California. Margolin served as chair of the NACDL amicus curiae committee and as chair of the California Attorneys for Criminal Justice Committee amicus curiae committee, which filed over 1500 briefs under his supervision, for 17 years. In 1984, he received NACDL''s top honor, the Robert C. Heeney Memorial Award. He is also a recipient of the Matthew O. Tobriner Award of San Francisco Public Advocates, 1982, and the Lawyer of the Year Award of Students'' Council for Civil Rights, 1979. He was described as being among leading San Francisco attorneys (Town & Country magazine, 1985), and is cited in "10 Lawyers With Clout" (California, 1982), "10 Super Lawyers" (San Francisco Examiner), and "Most Respected Lawyers" (California Lawyer, 1989). He is also listed in every issue of Best Lawyers in America.
Margolin has represented more than 130 judges before the California Commission on Judicial Performance as well as many lawyers before the State Bar of California. He has also represented such clients as the State of Israel, the United States of Mexico, the California Department of Transportation and the City and County of San Francisco. In the area of criminal law, Margolin has represented, among others, John Gotti on appeal; Jeff Wigand in the case depicted in the movie The Insider; Donald Lee Shirley in the exclusion of hypnotically altered testimony from courts; Robert Corenevsky in enforcing court-ordered defense costs against local county treasurers; and Frederick N. Woods of the Chowchilla kidnaping case, on the right to have a date of parole after 26 years in prison. He has been active regularly assisting in complex criminal cases handled by members of NACDL.
Margolin is an adjunct professor at University of California Hastings College of Law and University of California Berkeley Boalt Hall School of Law, as well as the author of numerous articles and books on criminal defense issues.
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 justice system.