Tonkon Torp attorney Sadie Concepción has won the Oregon State Bar’s 2019 New Lawyers Division Pro Bono Challenge Award. Sadie logged an impressive 277 
hours of direct legal services last year, including work with The CLiF Project, the District of Oregon’s Pro Bono Program, the ACLU of Oregon, and Legal Aid Roseburg. Sadie’s commitment to providing legal support to those most in need continues Tonkon Torp’s longstanding tradition of supporting the community through pro bono services.
The majority of Sadie’s pro bono hours were logged with the CLiF Project, which stands for “Changing Lives Forever.” CLiF was founded at Tonkon Torp in 2011 by partner Gwen Griffith to assist individuals in navigating the complex process of terminating their lifetime requirement to report as juvenile sex offenders
Sadie comes to the legal field with a social science background, and she is eager to help strengthen the intersection of social science and the law. Finding out about the firm’s involvement with CLiF was a serendipitous opportunity for Sadie, since she worked on a similar program during law school at the Bluhm Legal Clinic’s Children and Family Justice Center in Chicago. She is looking forward to pursuing opportunities to engage in education and policy work on this topic as well as the importance of trauma-informed legal advocacy more generally.
Sadie is an associate in Tonkon Torp’s Litigation Department. She graduated from Northwestern University School of Law in 2018, where she was an Executive Editor for the Journal of Law and Social Policy, and a member of the Latino Law Students Association, Student Animal Legal Defense Fund, Human Rights Project, and Women’s Leadership Coalition. While a law student, Sadie worked as a summer associate at Tonkon Torp and at Sidley Austin in Los Angeles. Prior to law school, Sadie worked at an immigration law firm and later for a nonprofit mental health agency that serves children and families who have experienced high levels of trauma.
