Washington Lawyer Wins Second Dateline Award

June 12, 2024

The D.C. Bar’s Washington Lawyer magazine continues to be recognized for journalism excellence, winning a Dateline Award from the Washington, D.C., chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists (SPJDC) during its annual awards dinner on June 11 at the National Press Club.

SPJDC picked Peter Meyers’s “Take a Chance? Releasing D.C. Prisoners Under the Second Look Amendment Act,”  published in the July/August 2023 issue of the magazine, as the best in commentary and criticism among newsletter and trade publications. In his article, Meyers, a D.C. Bar member and professor of law emeritus at George Washington University, offered a deep dive into the District of Columbia’s Second Look Amendment Act, which provides a sentencing review mechanism for offenders who have served at least 15 years in prison for crimes they committed under the age of 25.

Meyers’s win is the second Dateline Award for Washington Lawyer. In 2021 D.C. Bar staff writer Jeremy Conrad won top honors for his feature article on qualified immunity and police reform.

Conrad was also a finalist in this year’s Dateline Awards for his March/April 2023 article, “Unwanted: Haitian Migration & Echoes of Exclusion,” exploring the impacts of U.S. immigration laws and policies as applied to Haitians.

Washington Lawyer has consistently been a finalist in the Dateline Awards since 2021. The annual awards recognizes the best in local journalism throughout Washington D.C., and surrounding areas of Northern Virginia and Maryland.