Holland & Hart is delighted to announce that Chief Diversity & Inclusion Officer, Phyllis Wan, has been selected by the Colorado Lawyers Committee (CLC) as the 2024 recipient of its Outstanding Sustained Contribution Award for her work to improve and expand the CLC’s Hate Crimes Education Program. Each year, the CLC honors individuals who have contributed significantly to the work of Colorado Lawyers Committee through outstanding pro bono service. Phyllis will be honored at the CLC 2024 Awards Luncheon on September 26, 2024.
CLC is a 45-year-old nonprofit, non-partisan consortium of over 75 Colorado law firms dedicated to providing and increasing opportunities for children, the poor, and other disadvantaged communities through high impact pro bono legal advocacy, negotiation, and litigation.
Phyllis has donated more than 1,000 pro bono hours to the Hate Crimes Education Task Force (HCETF) over the last two decades, largely in middle and high school classrooms across Colorado. In addition, Phyllis has been an active member of CLC for 30 years, including as co-chair of the HCETF for 12 years, serving on its Board of Directors for 18 years, and contributing to a half dozen other CLC projects/task forces.
For almost 30 years, CLC volunteers have presented an educational program on Colorado’s Hate/Bias Motivated Crimes statute to schools and community groups around the state. Using a fictional trial format involving a high-school student charged with hate crimes against a Muslim teacher and perceived LGBTQ student, the presentation empowers student participants to act as jurors and improve community culture by exploring topics such as discrimination, stereotyping, bias, allyship, and inclusion, while preventing the severe harm caused by hateful slurs, bullying, and bias-motivated conduct. Hundreds of students participate in the program each year, and partnerships have been forged over the decades with the US Department of Justice, Denver Public Schools, a Denver private school consortium, and other secondary school educational organizations such as We The People.
In 2018, CLC received a grant from the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law in Washington, DC, to develop a national hate crimes program based on the Colorado program that could be offered in every community and school in the country. By 2019, Phyllis and the National Hate Crimes Team developed a modified script and manual plus additional resources (including an extensive training video) for a national rollout.
In addition to this honor, the HCETF also will receive a Special Recognition Award at the CLC awards ceremony marking its 30th anniversary.