Karen Comstock, assistant dean for public service at Cornell Law School since 2004, will be honored April 5 in Myron Taylor Hall's Berger Atrium as the 2006 winner of the Law School's Anne Lukingbeal Award.

The annual award was established in 1999 by the Women's Law Coalition, a student group, to celebrate contributions to the experience of women at the Law School and honor the school's associate dean and dean of students, Anne Lukingbeal. The entire Law School class votes to select each year's winner.

"Dean Comstock has illustrated an incredible commitment to gender issues throughout her career at the Law School," said Joanna D'Avella, an officer of the Women's Law Coalition. "She has been a unique resource in connecting the school to prominent legal activists in fields such as civil rights, sexual orientation rights and gender equality, and she has also been an invaluable asset to students interested in careers in the government and public interest sector."

In her current position, Comstock provides career counseling services to students and alumni and works to enhance and attract support for the Law School's public service law programs and initiatives, including a fellowship program that helps summer interns and graduates working in the low-paying field of public interest law pay off student loans.

A former assistant dean for career services at the Law School, Comstock chaired the committee that improved the school's loan repayment program for graduates working in public interest law. In addition, she has been adviser to the Public Interest Law Union student group, which sponsors talks and discussions on such social justice issues as law and poverty. She also manages the school's public interest fellowship program, which provides summer stipends to students for public interest and government internships.

A certified New York state mediator, Comstock is a volunteer with Ithaca's Community Dispute Resolution Center and served for seven years on the board of directors of the Tompkins County Women's Opportunity Center, which helps women re-enter the job market.