PLAN Excellence Awards: Richard Prebil to receive 2025 Emerging Excellence in Advocacy Award

updated March 29, 2025 | posted Dec. 13, 2024

Congratulations, Richard Prebil, on being honored with the 2025 Emerging Excellence in Advocacy Award from the Pennsylvania Legal Aid Network (PLAN). The award will be presented at the 2025 Excellence Awards ceremony Thursday, March 27, 2025 from 5-7:30 p.m. in Harrisburg. Registration begins in January.

Ceremony

(March 29, 2025)

HARRISBURG - The Pennsylvania Legal Aid Network (PLAN) celebrated outstanding legal advocacy across the Commonwealth at the annual Excellence Awards March 27, 2025 in Harrisburg. Richard A.J. Prebil, LASP Veterans Advocacy Project Supervising Attorney, was presented with the Emerging Excellence in Advocacy Award. Five other legal aid advocates were also honored.

Rochelle Jackson, PLAN Board Secretary, recognized the impact of legal aid staff in the PLAN Network. “Last year, we provided free civil legal aid to more than 200,000 people across all 67 counties in Pennsylvania. This mission is carried forward by each of you, the hundreds of paralegals, attorneys, social workers, administrative and supportive staff and other community members and stakeholders who relentlessly seek justice, address inequality and build pathways to opportunity and hope.”

In keynote remarks, Rep. Jordan Harris discussed the impact of legal aid attorneys “Seriously, it matters. ...I get to see the end result of your work. I get to see the people who find relief because of your legal minds. And I just want you to know that I am grateful. My family is grateful, my colleagues, we are grateful.”

In introducing the awards section of the program, Meredith Rapkin, PLAN Executive Director, said, “Tonight we recognize outstanding legal professionals and advocates whose work has transformed lives across Pennsylvania.”

LASP Executive Director Shawn Boehringer introduced Richard Prebil and shared brief remarks about Richard and the growth of the Veterans Advocacy Project, from its launch in mid-2020 during the pandemic with one attorney, to the present team of four attorneys and a paralegal. Shawn also discussed the impact of LASP’s work to obtain VA benefits and discharge upgrades for veterans in Bucks, Chester, Delaware and Montgomery counties plus 16 additional counties in PA.

“Richard’s work lifts individuals out of poverty. It has prevented eviction and foreclosure and homelessness, and even led to homeownership in some cases,” Shawn said.

Excellence Awards announcement

(Dec. 13, 2024)

HARRISBURG - The Pennsylvania Legal Aid Network announced recipients of the 2025 PLAN Excellence Awards on Dec. 12.

Richard A.J. Prebil, Veterans Advocacy Project Supervising Attorney for Legal Aid of Southeastern PA (LASP), will receive the Emerging Excellence in Advocacy Award.

His practice focuses on veterans benefits and discharge upgrades in Bucks, Chester, Delaware and Montgomery counties + 16 additional counties in PA.

LASP’s Veterans Advocacy Project launched in mid-2020. Since receiving its first positive decision in 2021, LASP has obtained over 90 positive decisions (results that increased income) for veterans securing over $3.1 million in retroactive benefits, $1,500 in average increases in monthly income, and over $67.3 million in estimated lifetime benefits.

PLAN noted on its website, “This award recognizes legal professionals from our Network who, within their first 10 years of practice or less, have already made significant strides in championing the rights of indigent and underserved Pennsylvanians. The impact of their work underscores the potential for change and heralds a more just legal future.”

PLAN also announced other recipients, stating, “These awards celebrate and recognize the extraordinary talent, dedication, and impact of our Network's advocates, private bar partners, and community leaders.”

* * * * *

Richard helped launch LASP's Veterans Advocacy Project in mid‐2020. The unit provides representation, advice, and outreach to veterans, specifically those who are unhoused, at risk of becoming unhoused, income insecure, and those living with disabilities. When he joined LASP in 2019, Richard, based in the Chester, Delaware County, office, represented individuals in landlord/tenant, subsidized housing, child custody, public benefits, and unemployment compensation matters.

Prior to joining LASP, Richard was an Equal Justice Works Fellow at a nonprofit in Philadelphia where he represented veterans, current military personnel, and their families, in the areas of veterans benefits, discharge upgrades, and Chapter 7 bankruptcies, in PA, NJ, and DE. During law school, he worked with many veteran and legal service organizations from Minneapolis to Chicago to Philadelphia.

He received his bachelor's degree from the University of Illinois Springfield and graduated from the Villanova University Charles Widger School of Law. He was awarded the Dorothy Day Award for Pro Bono Service, the Philadelphia Bar Association’s 2017 Eve Biskind Klothen Award for Pro Bono Service to the Community, and the American Bar Association Commission on Homelessness and Poverty’s 2015 John J. Curtin, Jr. Justice Fund Legal Fellowship. He received the Delaware County Bar Association’s Illumination Award and LASP’s Rising Star Award in June 2024.

He is also currently an adjunct professor at Villanova Law School teaching a course he created entitled, "Representing Veterans in Administrative Practice: A Substantive & Practical Introduction to Veterans Law."

Richard has spoken nationally, and written, on the areas of access to justice (especially in administrative agencies), the impact and importance of legal services for those who are unhoused or living at or below the poverty level, trauma and trauma-informed advocacy, and best practices for impactful partnerships.

Richard is licensed to practice law in Pennsylvania and is an accredited attorney with the U.S. Dept. of Veterans Affairs. He is also licensed to practice before the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania and the U.S. Court of Appeals for Veterans Claims.

Save the date! 2025 PLAN Excellence Awards ceremony is March 27

Register beginning in January for the Excellence Awards ceremony March 27, 2025 in in Harrisburg.

The PLAN Excellence Awards ceremony is Thursday, March 27, 2025, from 5-7:30 p.m. at the Hilton Harrisburg, located at 1 N. Second St, Harrisburg, PA 17101. To learn more: https://palegalaid.net/events/2025-excellence-awards. Check back in January to register.

Further reading

StaffMarion FraleyPennsylvania Legal Aid Network, PLAN Excellence