The National Legal Aid and Defender Association (NLADA) has withdrawn its sponsorship for the 2010 Equal justice Conference and will not participate in the conference which is being held in Phoenix, Arizona on May 13-15, 2010.

The decision to withdraw from the conference was announced in a letter from Jo-Ann Wallace, President & CEO of NLADA, that appears on the NLADA website. The decision to withdraw from the conference is based on the bill that was signed into law by Governor Jan Brewer of the State of Arizona that potentially criminalizes a person's presence based on suspected immigration status and that significantly increases stop and arrest powers for state law enforcement, effectively legitimizing racial profiling.

In explaining the decision, Ms. Wallaces stated:

"For nearly 100 years we have been utilizing our collective passion, expertise and voices under the umbrella of NLADA to promote equal justice. While we call it "equal justice," at bottom NLADA's mission is about ensuring that all people are treated with fairness and respect; it is about protecting human dignity; it's about people. Thus, while recognizing that the decision to participate is an individual one, given the reality of the law we do not believe that we should play an institutional role in potentially placing our members in the position of suffering the indignity and abuse of rights and freedoms that laws like this promulgate. Accordingly, after much debate we have taken the position that NLADA will withdraw from the Equal Justice Conference. Our decision is grounded in our mission, vision and values."

Despite NLADA's decision to withdraw as a co-sponsor, the American Bar Association (ABA), the other major co-sponsor of the conference, has made a decision to go forward with the Conference. NLADA and ABA have partnered to deliver the Equal Justice Conference to an average of 800 access to justice advocates for the past 12 years. NLADA indicated that it has tremendous regard for the ABA and the partnership that they have enjoyed in presenting the conference, and that it respects the ABA's decision to move forward with the conference despite NLADA'a decision to withdraw its sponsorship.

Persons currently registered who choose not to attend the Equal Justice Conference and desire a refund of their registration fee are advised to contact Meaghan Sherer immediately at shererm@staff.abanet.org. NLADA indicates that the full conference registration fee will be refunded without penalty, or registrations may be credited as full registrations for the 2011 Equal Justice Conference in San Francisco, regardless of any increase in cost.

Those cancelling registrations are also advised that they need to cancel their own hotel reservations and unfortunately, NLADA cannot be responsible for any hotel reservation charges or losses associated with airfare cancellation.

Read the letter of Jo-Ann Wallace

Related Story: ABA to Proceed with Equal Justice Conference and Expand Immigration Programming