Maryland DUI Lawyer Blog
On Thursday, July 17, Lenny Stamm received the prestigious Erwin-Taylor Award from the National College for DUI Defense (NCDD) at its annual summer conference, this year in Denver.
The NCDD website describes the award:
Erwin-Taylor Award
The Erwin-Taylor Award is the National College’s highest honor. It recognizes a lifetime of accomplishments and contributions not only to the National College but to the entire defense community. The award is not given every year, but rather occasionally. The list of recipients represent some of the most accomplished and well-recognized DUI defense attorneys in the entire country.
The Erwin-Taylor Award was first called the Richard E. Erwin Lifetime Achievement Award. It was named after Richard E. Erwin, the author of the first text on defending DUIs. Richard Erwin published the first handbook on how to defend a DUI case in 1963. A public defender for most of his career, he had to create tools and strategies for fighting DUI cases. In 2004, the name changed to the Erwin-Taylor award to also honor Larry Taylor, who was instrumental in the formation of NCDD. Mr. Taylor also served as one of the first Deans of NCDD and continued to participate in the furtherance of educating defense attorneys nationwide. Although Mr. Taylor passed away in 2023, he established himself as one of the pre-eminent DUI defense lawyers in the entire nation. To this day, his treatise “Drunk Driving Defense” (Wolters Kluwer) co-authored with 2014 Erwin-Taylor recipient Steve Oberman, continues to be the premier treatise nationwide for anyone defending those accused of impaired driving.
Family, friends and colleagues prepared video comments for which I am grateful.
- My wife, Susan Stamm
- My son, Michael Stamm
- My daughter, Lauren Stamm
- My secretary of over 40 years, Kelly O’Connell
- Fellow of NCDD George Bianchi
- Fellow of NCDD Don Ramsell
- Regents of NCDD Andrew Mishlove, and Lara Gressley, Fellows Peter Gerstenzang, Steven Oberman, and Jim Nesci, and outgoing Dean Mimi Coffey.
- Family/band photos
This was my acceptance speech.
I am very humbled to receive this award. First of all, I want to thank Mimi and Rhea (Kirk, Executive Director of NCDD). And my wife Susan. She and Rhea planned this surprise and at first I didn’t figure it out. I didn’t think anything when Rhea asked me for Susan’s contact information. But about a week ago I saw a text Susan sent to a group I am a member of that raised my suspicions. My daughter Lauren, being more tech savvy was able to delete it. But then a few days ago, a friend of Susan’s sent a text in another group chat I belong to that gave it away.
Meanwhile, Susan made a Herculean effort to get here by Wednesday night. That included 2 days stuck in Saco, Maine, with a broken down minivan last week. And coming into Denver, her flight circled so long they had to go to Grand Junction to refuel. I watched on Find My Iphone when she went to Dulles, the least convenient airport for us to travel from and then saw her in Grand Junction! So she couldn’t get here on time Wednesday night, which is why we are doing this now on Thursday. So I owe her. And I know she is going to come to collect!
The work we do as criminal defense lawyers is important and meaningful. In thinking about what I was going to say, and the National College of DUI Defense and the Erwin-Taylor award I wrote down a number of words that I associate with NCDD and express the ideals of this organization, the things we value and what the award represents: friendship, camaraderie, decency, fairness, civility, justice, professionalism, competence, zealousness, effectiveness, empathy, education, mitigation, notice, evidence, presumption of innocence, right to counsel, protecting against unlawful searches and seizures, protecting against violations of the 1st, 2nd, 4th, 5th and 6th Amendments, confrontation, fair public trial, real science over junk science, due process. We represent people who are wrongfully accused, as well as those rightfully accused, because they also need a lawyer and have a right to counsel. These things are all part of the Rule of Law. All of us fight for the Rule of Law every time we go to court. That is what we do.
The Rule of Law is under attack in the United States now. I find it disgusting that in the United States of America people have been disappeared to a foreign gulag possibly for life without notice, evidence, charges, counsel or a hearing. But I am convinced that with organizations like NCDD, and criminal defense lawyers like the members of this organization, the Rule of Law will prevail.
Thank you.