Nancy King's five siblings accepted the Access to Justice Lifetime Achievement Award on her behalf at the Massachusetts Bar Association's 2008 Access to Justice Awards Luncheon on March 6 at the John F. Kennedy Library and Museum in Boston.

The luncheon was dedicated to King, a Lincoln resident and the former executive director of South Middlesex Legal Services in Framingham, who died in December after a 22-year battle with breast cancer.

"Nancy will be remembered in the legal world as a leader, a compassionate advocate for the delivery of legal services to the poor, a wise mentor, and a highly effective fundraiser for legal services," MBA President David W. White Jr. said. "Selfless to the end, rather than fret about herself, she took care of clients, colleagues and relatives. For example, she would even help run her office by phone from the hospital when treatments demanded her presence."

<p>King's sisters Mary, Patricia and Eileen, as well as her brothers Michael and Thomas, accepted the award from White at the luncheon. Mary King read a speech her sister gave more than 10 years earlier when she was honored with the David Nelson Award for Public Interest from Boston College Law School, her alma mater.

<p>&quot;I believe in the idea of equal justice under the law, and that may be both naive and idealist, but I am proud of both characteristics,&quot; Mary King said, reading her sister's speech.

<p>Following the award presentation, White announced that the board of the Massachusetts Bar Foundation - the MBA's philanthropic partner - has created the Nancy King Memorial Fellowship. This fellowship will support a legal intern during the summer months at South Middlesex Legal Services. The fellowship was made possible by a contribution from MBA Past President Elaine M. Epstein and matching funds from the foundation's Fellows program.

A prison law clerk who convinced the U.S. Supreme Court to hear a fellow inmate's case is being investigated by South Carolina authorities for practicing law without a license, the prisoner's attorney said Tuesday.

Lawyer Rauch Wise confirmed the state attorney general's office informed him last week they were investigating Michael Ray, a federal inmate in South Carolina. The Associated Press received a letter from Ray last week in which he claimed state authorities were investigating him.

Ray helped fellow inmate Keith Lavon Burgess appeal his conviction for possession of crack cocaine with the intent to distribute. In the appeal, which the U.S. Supreme Court is scheduled to hear on March 24, Burgess is arguing that a prior drug conviction prosecutors used to get him the 20-year minimum prison sentence shouldn't have applied because it was a misdemeanor instead of a felony.

Conflicting court rulings have required 10-year sentences for people already convicted of misdemeanors, so a successful appeal could trim Burgess' sentence in half.