Legal Pro Bono Opportunity 10.3.2023
Opportunity to volunteer during our annual Street Law Program with Pace Centers For Girls. The program is being held on 10/3 from 9:30-11:30AM at Pace Centers For Girls (3139 Dumont Ave, Spring Hill, FL, 34609). 3 students are needed and will work with Dierdre White, Grow’s Chief Legal Officer and alum Mark Osborne, Assistant General Counsel for Grow Financial. The prep would be very minimal (likely less than 20 minutes). Lesson plans will be provided and students would just need to follow the lesson plan and assist the young women (10 total) to understand the basic elements of a contract. Information on the Program is provided below.
Basic summary of the Program: In June 2021, ACC Tampa Bay launched a successful and rewarding Street Law program with students from three Pace Centers For Girls locations in our footprint (Hillsborough, Pinellas, and Polk). The mission of Pace is to provide girls and young women an opportunity for a better future through education, counseling, training, and advocacy. Over the course of two weeks, volunteer ACC Tampa Bay attorneys exposed the young women to the law through a contract module that culminated in a mock negotiation involving a concert dispute. Besides providing an understanding of how contracts and negotiation impact their daily lives, the program allowed the students to have a positive interaction with the legal community and to build valuable skills through communication, advocacy, and public speaking. It was exciting to see the growth of the students over the course of the program as they built confidence and found their voice. In 2022, we continued our program with the Hillsborough and Pinellas centers. This year is being hosted at the Hillsborough (volunteer list is full) and Hernando Centers.
Additional information about the Pace Center for Girls can be found here and a discussion of our 2021 Street Law Program with the ACC Foundation can be found here.
About Street Law and the Corporate Legal Diversity Pipeline Program: The Corporate Legal Diversity Pipeline Program is a nationwide partnership between Street Law, Inc., and the Association of Corporate Counsel. The aim of the program is to expose young people from diverse communities to everyday law and legal careers. As many companies and law firms strive to implement diversity initiatives, this pipeline program can serve as one component of those efforts. With the goal of encouraging more young people of color to consider pursuing a legal career, the program uses volunteer legal professionals to deliver lessons about the law, engage the students in interactive simulations, and serve as role models and advisors. www.streetlaw.org/acc
Since 2001, a dozen ACC chapters, as well as more than fifty companies, have joined the Corporate Legal Diversity Pipeline Program. Street Law matches in-house legal department volunteers with nearby, diverse high school social studies courses. The legal volunteers are trained to develop then visit their partner classes a few times to teach about civil law and legal careers. The chapter then hosts a Legal Careers Conference where the students participate in exciting, interactive workshops and simulations of legal activities and attend a career fair.
If you would like to volunteer, please contact Mark Osborne at [email protected].