Boston University Honoured Ed Kelly
08 November 2012
Boston University School of Law honoured Ed Kelly, a lawyer at Monterey, California-based LaRiviere, Grubman & Payne, in October for his groundbreaking legal work to fight illicit trafficking and counterfeit operations in Asia. He was presented with the Victor Garo Public Service Award in a campus ceremony.
Kelly joined LG&P in August. He is based in Bangkok where he oversees the firm’s operations in Asia.
“There is no higher honour than being acknowledged for volunteer service,” Kelly said while visiting his alma mater. “This honour is actually one that I will share with the hundreds of other volunteers working to stop child slave labour.” Kelly has dedicated his legal career to developing strategies to thwart organized crime syndicates that prey on child labour to manufacture counterfeit products.
Kelly and his wife, Sasithorn “May” Jarukdee, have been instrumental in the legal battles to end human trafficking, and have been featured in several documentary films and news reports, including BBC, ABC and the National Geographic Society. They are key advisors to sisha.org a charitable foundation in Phnom Penh, Cambodia and Bangkok.
The Victor Garo Award is named for the Boston attorney who famously worked for decades to free an innocent man who had been wrongly convicted of murder. Kelly is the law school’s first recipient of the award.
