Recognizing Mrs. Diane Messer Dodds
Floor Speech
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Mr. VALADAO. Madam Speaker, I rise today to recognize Mrs. Diane Messer Dodds, for receiving the Bench and Bar Award, Kern County Bar Association's most prestigious award.
A graduate of Yale Law School, Mrs. Dodds was sworn into the California State Bar in 1975 and began her lifelong commitment to provide outstanding legal services to those in need. She started her legal career working with the Legal Aid Office in Long Beach, California. After a year there, she began clerking for U.S. District Judge Harry Pregerson. Following her clerkship, she would go on to work at the Western Center on Law and Poverty in Los Angeles.
After her time with Western Center, Mrs. Dodds moved to Kernville after marrying her husband, Patrick. For 12 years, she would provide important legal services to the elderly throughout her community as she and Patrick raised their young children. This work led to her meeting Pat Jennison, an attorney in Bakersfield, who has been a dear friend and important legal partner. The two would go on to open the law office of Jennison and Dodds in 2007.
For decades, Mrs. Dodds has provided vital legal services to clients throughout the Valley. Mrs. Dodd's pro bono work has earned her special recognition from the California State Bar, as a recipient of the Wiley M. Manuel Award for Pro Bono Legal Services. Mrs. Dodds has dedicated thousands of hours to legal clinics for self-represented litigants through the Greater Bakersfield Legal Assistance and the Kern County Law Library--even teaching a monthly class at the library for self- represented litigants for the past 15 years.
Mrs. Dodds has rightfully received the praise of fellow attorneys, Judges, Bar Associations throughout California, and most importantly-- her clients. She has accomplished all of this while being a dedicated wife and loving mother to three children, and I cannot think of a more deserving recipient of this prestigious award than Mrs. Dodds.
I ask my colleagues in the United States House of Representatives to join me in recognizing the incredible work of Mrs. Diane Messer Dodds for her accomplishment of receiving the Kern County Bar Association Bench and Bar Award.
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