30th Anniversary Celebration and Awards Benefit 2004

Honoring LAC Founders Elizabeth Bartholet, Arthur Liman and Herb Sturz. 2004 Arthur Liman Media Award: Peter Gallagher

Tuesday, May 18th 2004, Regency Hotel, NYC

One of America’s most respected actors, Peter Gallagher has starred on stage, television and in film, delivering stellar performances with every role he tackles. Mr. Gallagher is currently starring in Fox’s new hit drama, "The O.C.", where he plays a former public defender who gives troubled young people a second chance to succeed in life. Below is his acceptance speech from the benefit.

“Thank you, Lewis (Lewis Liman, son of LAC founder Arthur Liman, who introduced Mr. Gallagher).

“I’m sure some of you are wondering why I’m receiving this award. I’ve been wondering the same thing myself. In fact, I’d be surprised and concerned if you all weren’t wondering what I’m doing up here.

“The answer, of course, is that Lewis and I live in the same building (laughter)...and I have had the good fortune to work with Lewis’ brother Doug this year in a show where I play a public defender, a liberal from the Bronx transplanted to a conservative Republican enclave in Orange County. Sandy Cohen, the character I play, finds a young felon with great promise but no future, and brings him into his home to try to give him one. One outsider helping another. Something I imagine the great Arthur Liman would have understood and maybe even approved of.

“I’m no Arthur Liman. I’m not even Sandy Cohen—I only play him on TV. But the vigor with which our show and Sandy Cohen have been embraced by a growing audience worldwide suggest that the do-gooder is no longer an object of ridicule.

“Much attention has been given to those gripped by religion who believe that redemption is to be found in heaven. But there are a lot of people out there who want to believe in redemption here on earth; who acknowledge human frailty and see the need to bear responsibility for it, and believe that how we treat the least fortunate in our society is the truest reflection of who we are as individuals and as a culture.

“Maybe people are ready to trust again that compassion pays, and may provide greater promise of a better life for ourselves and our children than the policy of condemnation and punishment that has been all the rage these days, but has cost us dearly and given us little but broken bodies and shattered futures.

“If I have indirectly had anything to do with showing just how visionary and humane Arthur Liman’s approach to justice has been and will continue to be, thank you very much. I was in the right place at the right time.

“And so, apparently, is the Legal Action Center.”

You can help support the ongoing work of the Legal Action Center by contributing to the LAC’s 30th Anniversary Fund!