IJ Activist Receives Unsung Hero Award

By Clark Neily

You don’t need to be an IJ client to change the world. And no one knows that better than Patti Morrow. If you want to impose anticompetitive licensing requirements on interior designers, you’ll have to go through Patti. And you’d better think again.

I met Patti eight years ago when she was looking for help to resist a licensing bill that was being pushed in New Hampshire, her home state, by the American Society of Interior Designers (ASID). She made clear she was serious, and I flew up to help. Patti’s perseverance marked the end of ASID’s attempt to cartelize the New Hampshire interior design industry and the birth of an activist.

Patti has led a one-woman crusade to keep the industry free from burdensome licensing regulations. Since we met, not a single state has enacted a new licensing law for interior designers. But it has come at a price: Patti shut down her business, spent countless days away from her family and endured vicious personal attacks from ASID.

I was honored to nominate Patti for the Vernon K. Krieble Foundation’s Unsung Hero Award, presented each year (along with a check for $25,000) to a freedom entrepreneur who would otherwise go unacknowledged. I am thrilled to say she was this year’s winner! Congratulations to Patti for a job well done, and many thanks to the Krieble Foundation for honoring our friend and colleague.

Clark Neily is an IJ senior attorney.