On July 30, 2009, the American Bar Association's Commission on Domestic Violence made Professor Joan Meier the inaugural recipient of its Sharon Corbitt Award for "exemplary legal service to victims of domestic violence, sexual assault and stalking."

The award is named for the late Sharon L. Corbitt, who served both as a member of the ABA's Commission on Domestic Violence and as Chair of the ABA's Family Law Section, and who worked tirelessly for victims of domestic violence throughout her legal career. The ABA created this award last year to recognize lawyers who embody Ms. Corbitt's spirit and dedication to this area of the law.

It is unlikely that many legal professionals have demonstrated as much spirit and dedication to victims of domestic violence as has Professor Joan Meier.  Throughout her distinguished career, Meier has devoted her work to providing legal assistance to domestic violence victims, which is a service these victims always need but can rarely afford.

In her more than fifteen years as a professor of clinical law at GW, Professor Meier has founded three interdisciplinary domestic violence clinical programs, including The Domestic Violence Advocacy Project and The Domestic Violence Emergency Department Clinic, which offered free legal representation, advocacy, and counseling to victims of domestic violence.  Currently, Professor Meier teaches the Domestic Violence Project, in which students do domestic violence legal work in the field while participating in a seminar and small group supervision with Professor Meier.  "The Domestic Violence Project has proven to be an extraordinarily successful model for learning experientially about domestic violence." Meier says.  "I think the course strikes the right balance between doing intense and sometimes draining hands-on domestic violence work, and structured in-depth reflection, processing and debate, as well as skill development.  I have been very impressed with students' growth and development in this class."  Meier has also written extensively on domestic violence and has received awards for her work.

In 2003, Professor Meier founded the Domestic Violence Legal Empowerment and Appeals Project, or DV LEAP, the sole organization in the country providing pro bono expert appellate legal representation for domestic violence victims.  "[The program] has made it possible to achieve some really significant victories in domestic violence litigation, including some significant education of the Supreme Court on the subject, and some fabulous decisions in state courts of appeal," Meier said of DV LEAP. "And it has begun to empower many lawyers and advocates in the field, by being, as we call DV LEAP, 'a stronger voice for justice.'"  To date, DV LEAP has participated in five U.S. Supreme Court cases and will submit a brief in another this term.

Professor Meier was first drawn to the domestic violence field during her law school days at the University of Chicago.  During those "dark ages" as she calls them, "domestic violence was not a familiar concept in society."  Over the years, the field has evolved, and much awareness has been raised on the subject.  However, Meier is the first to say that work remains to be done. "One of the difficult parts of doing this kind of work is that over the years you find yourself watching the legal system backslide from past positive developments, and failing to protect women and children, sometimes in worse ways than it ever did before," Meier said.  "When I began my work in domestic violence I was more focused on abuse of adult women.  But in the past five years or so, we have become much more focused on custody cases in which children are also abused, because we are seeing too many rulings giving custody of children to their abusers."  Meier is leading the charge nationally to challenge these types of rulings at the appellate level.  There is also room for improvement regarding the Supreme Court's recent rulings on the Sixth Amendment which, she noted, "have been devastating to the prosecution of batterers."  Professor Meier, however, is committed to remedying such setbacks through her work, and notes that experts in the field have already recognized the contribution DV LEAP is making.

Despite her myriad accomplishments, Professor Meier is quite humble. "I could not do this work without the fabulous colleagues with whom I work," she revealed.  "The law school's support on all levels makes a huge difference. And having this powerhouse faculty available for consultations on high profile cases makes me even happier to be here at the law school."  In addition, she thanks her husband and daughter for supporting her even when it means time away from the family.  "My husband's support - of all kinds - has been critical to my ability to do what I do."