Longtime Dayton area lawyer Ellis Jacobs is a winner of the 2015 Ohio Legal Assistance Foundation Murphy Award.
Created by the Foundation in 1998, the award is named for the late Denis Murphy, a Columbus lawyer and founding board member of the Foundation who advocated for strong funding for civil legal aid.
Jacobs, a Dayton native, joined the Legal Aid Society of Dayton in 1987 and is an attorney in the Dayton office of Advocates for Basic Legal Equality (ABLE), a successor organization. In addition to representing individual clients of ABLE, Jacobs has over the years assisted a number of community organizations devoted to environmental, housing and health matters. He is also a past chair of the Yellow Springs Planning Commission.
He was nominated for the Murphy Award by Dayton attorney Gary Leppla, a member of the Ohio Legal Assistance Foundation Board of Trustees, who said of Jacobs “Ellis has been a tower of dedication and strength in Dayton and statewide communities on essential issues.”
The award was presented to Jacobs Thursday evening during the Miami Valley Access to Justice Awards Gala at Sinclair Community College.