Rebuilding Justice Award Dinner Celebrates 20 Years and Justice Innovators
On Thursday April 23, IAALS celebrated its 20th anniversary with longtime partners and friends at its 18th Annual Rebuilding Justice Award Dinner. The evening drew over 200 guests as we looked back on two decades of civil justice reform and ahead to our goals for the next 20 years.
IAALS presented the 2026 Rebuilding Justice Award to five people who each embody one of our five core values:
- Question the Status Quo: Dave Byers, Director, Administrative Office of the Courts, Arizona Supreme Court
- Let Data Guide the Way: William C. Hubbard, Dean and Educational Foundation Distinguished Professor, University of South Carolina Joseph F. Rice School of Law
- Center the People: Stacy Rupprecht Jane, Director, Innovation for Justice (i4J)
- Find Common Ground: Chief Justice Nathan L. Hecht (Ret.), Supreme Court of Texas
- Set Our Sights on Tomorrow: Sateesh Nori, Chief Legal Futurist, LawDroid
These awardees represent the many forms of leadership needed to rebuild justice, and the values that must guide our system at large. In recognizing these leaders, IAALS celebrated their shared pursuit of a more accessible, innovative justice system and renewed our pledge to advance that vision in all we do.
Watch the awardees video tribute.
Elisa "Emo" Overall, Executive Director of the Colorado Access to Justice Commission, also received the Alli Gerkman Legal Visionary Award. Sam Walker, Executive in Residence at the Colorado Attorney General’s Office and member of the commission, spoke to Overall’s persistence and talent in expanding access to justice for Coloradans and her ability to build coalitions for the common good. In accepting the award, Overall highlighted the role she is honored to play in increasing access to justice, the people and institutions that came before her, and the network of collaborators and loved ones that support her.
“Any vision that I’ve brought to life has been stitched together from the fabric of decades of innovation, of the successes, the failures, the bold thinking, the willingness to try again, of the leaders and the institutions that came before me," said Overall. "And that is especially true of IAALS. The groundwork laid here by you has shaped the way I think about everything.”
IAALS CEO Brittany K.T. Kauffman was joined on stage by IAALS Founding Executive Director Rebecca Love Kourlis, Colorado Chief Justice Monica Márquez, and former Michigan Chief Justice Bridget Mary McCormack for a fireside chat focused on reimagining the justice system. The leaders talked about the challenges inside and beyond the courtroom, what opportunities technology and collaboration provide for the future, and how IAALS is leading holistic, integrated change across our legal system.
“What I love about this [evening] is the opportunity to collaborate. This is a wonderful room of optimists, of leaders of the first order, who we've recognized this evening. And if I have any words of hope . . . for each of you, it's to hopefully draw inspiration from events and be involved in IAALS, but to connect with each other,” said Chief Justice Márquez. “You have the opportunity here tonight to make connections with folks in other states who are trying to do the same thing you're doing, and that's the inspiring piece for me going forward.”
The impacts IAALS have created across the country for the last two decades do not happen alone. The evening’s attendees—longtime supporters, new partners, stakeholders, collaborators, and friends—reflected all the relationships and connections IAALS have fostered along the way. They gathered to celebrate 20 years of civil justice reform, but also to look to the future. To look towards the challenges that we at IAALS, with their and your support, will work to solve. Together, we will continue to convene, research, and implement meaningful changes to the civil justice system so everyone has access to the justice they deserve.
