Nicole Lalich, a third-year student at the University of Illinois College of Law, in Urbana-Champaign, has won the Young Lawyers Division/Law Student Division Public Service Award from the Illinois State Bar Association (ISBA), for her commitment to professional responsibility and public interest law.

She was honored Friday, June 18, at an awards luncheon during the ISBA Annual Meeting at The Abbey in Fontana, Wis. A $250 contribution in her name will be made to the Chicago Legal Clinic.

Lalich devoted last summer to the legal clinic's Austin office, providing family law assistance to disadvantaged individuals on Chicago's West Side. She also interviewed rehabilitated candidates for its executive clemency and expungement program to give them fresh starts with clear records.

For her efforts, she received a modest stipend through grants from public interest law organizations and bypassed opportunities for higher paid legal employment.

As co-chair of the Women's Law Society Symposium last year, Lalich helped plan a major symposium on the issues of worldwide trafficking of people for prostitution and forced labor. She also worked with the Protection Project at Johns Hopkins on a training program for lawyers on human trafficking.

Through the law school's International Human Rights Clinic where she is a teaching assistant, Lalich worked on a report for the Kenya Human Rights Commission that included recommendations for law enforcement reform that were adopted officially.

She also supervised a team of students in drafting a complaint against the European Union for illegally imposing sanctions against a Caribbean nation.

After a series of sexual assaults on the university campus, Lalich organized a safety program to provide access to Mace for the protection of interested women.