Washington, DC (Aug. 11, 2023) – Alexandria, VA attorney and NACDL Past President Nina Ginsberg received the Robert C. Heeney Memorial Award from the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers (NACDL) at the Association's annual meeting. The Robert C. Heeney Memorial Award is given annually to the criminal defense attorney who best exemplifies the goals and values of the Association and the legal profession.

Nina J. Ginsberg, a founding partner at DiMuroGinsberg, P.C. in Alexandria, VA, and has practiced criminal law for more than 35 years. She has represented individuals and corporations in a wide range of matters, with a focus on national security law, white collar investigations and prosecution, financial and securities fraud, computer crime, copyright fraud, and professional ethics. She is a frequent litigator in the federal courts for the Eastern District of Virginia and is known for her experience in handling criminal cases on the “Rocket Docket.” Nina has served multiple terms on the Virginia State Bar Council and on the Virginia State Bar's Board of Governors of the Criminal Law Section. She is a Fellow of the Virginia Law Foundation and is a member of the State Bar Indigent Defense Task Force. She serves on the Criminal Justice Act Panel Screening Committee for the Eastern District of Virginia, Alexandria Division and is a member of the Merit Selection Panel for U.S. Magistrate Judges in the Eastern District of Virginia, Alexandria Division.

"Nina is a very dear friend, a mentor, and someone who has contributed to NACDL in an untold number of ways. She has led with dignity, possessing an unwavering commitment to speaking truth and a steadfast ability to standing up to wrongs, to power, and to bullies. The trait I love most about Nina is her commitment to lifting women up when others are bent on tearing women down," said NACDL Immediate Past President Nellie King. "She has a moral and ethical barometer about her that leads her where she needs to be, not because it’s popular, but because it’s necessary. Nina is the product of a very strong mother who was a lawyer and a role model. Her mother was a trailblazer and very opinionated. She was not afraid to speak the truth and her influence on Nina is evident. A member since the 1980s, Nina’s involvement in NACDL touches on numerous projects, committees, and leadership positions. She was a co-author of the 2021 report Abortion in America: How Legislative Overreach Is Turning Reproductive Rights Into Criminal Wrongs. Nina’s work on this report, and the formulation of the Criminalization of Reproductive Health Task Force, was the starting point for NACDL’s commitment to addressing the legal realities of the Supreme Court’s decision in Dobbs. NACDL has reaped the benefits of Nina’s leadership and it is my honor to present her with this award."

Nina is the former President of the George Mason Inn of Court, has taught as an adjunct faculty member at the George Washington University and George Mason University Schools of Law and has taught the Virginia State Bar's Mandatory Professionalism Course. She has been named a Virginia Leader in the Law, Influential Woman of Law, and the Corporate International White Collar Crime and Investigations Lawyer of the Year in Virginia for 2019. She is a previous member of the editorial board of the Criminal Law Advocacy Reporter and was an early member of the Practitioner's Advisory Committee to the U.S. Sentencing Commission. She is currently a member of the Steering Group of the Bar Association of the District of Columbia's Committee on National Security Law, Policy & Practice. In 2013, she was named one of Virginia’s Leaders in the Law and named one of the Women Leaders in the Law by the Washington Post. Nina is listed in Martindale Hubbell’s Bar Register of Preeminent Women Lawyers. She has been rated as a top criminal lawyer by The National Trial Lawyers, Super Lawyers, the Washington Post Magazine, the Northern Virginia Magazine, the Washingtonian, and U.S. News & World Report since 2012.

Nina has been an active member of NACDL for decades. She served as NACDL’s President from 2019-2020 and served three terms on the Board of Directors, and currently serves on the Board of NACDL’s Criminal Justice Foundation as Treasurer. Nina has chaired numerous committees and currently serves on the White Collar, Women in Criminal Defense, Mental Health, and National Security Committees, as well as the Lawyers Assistance Strike Force.

Upon receiving the award, Nina Ginsberg said, “Thank you for this award. We are in trouble as a country and our clients are in even more trouble than we are. I got an alert yesterday that said, ‘court throws out conviction after Judge says Black man looks like a criminal to me.’ I didn’t know if I should cheer that a court threw out the conviction, or whether I should cry because a trial judge, whose hands the fate all of our clients is in, could even think to say that out loud. This is the most precious organization I know. It has meant more to me professionally and personally than almost anything else I have done in my life. NACDL has been a place for all of us to learn and support each other, a place to come and know we have each other’s backs. I’m so proud of the Women in Criminal Defense Committee and the work we have done. When I look around this room, the faces of the board are so different from when I joined this organization. We have more to do, but when I look around, I know we are moving forward and will get there. I couldn’t be prouder and more humbled to receive this award. Thank you all.”

Contacts

Kate Holden, NACDL Public Affairs and Communications Associate, (202) 465-7624 or kholden@nacdl.org

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.