Legal Community in Action
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First-year student John Henley (right) helps with a résumé writing workshop at the Salvation Army in St. Petersburg. Click for high-resolution image.
On Oct. 22, the entire student body at Stetson University College of Law in Gulfport, Fla., devoted a day to serving their community during the law school’s first Legal Community in Action Day: Serving the Public, Serving the Law and Serving the Profession. In total, students gave approximately 1,500 public service hours to charities, hospitals, schools, legal offices, and other Tampa Bay organizations.
The campus-wide Legal Community in Action Day is designed to remind students, at each level of their law school career,
about their service responsibilities as members of the legal profession. Instead of attending their regular classes, students participated in one of three programs based on their class year:
- First-year students volunteered at more than 15 community service organizations in the Tampa Bay area.
- Second-year students attended law reform workshops on legal scholarship and how it impacts the practice of law.
- Third-year law students participated in a professionalism retreat that focused on transitioning from law school into the profession. Leaders in the legal community presented seminars on professionalism, work/life balance and activism.
“The Legal Community in Action Day was developed to teach our students before they graduate and head out into the world, about the important roles that lawyers play in the community at large,” said Roberta K. Flowers, who holds the Wm. Reece Smith Jr. Distinguished Professor of Law for her academic commitment to professionalism and ethics. “We wanted to give our students a solid foundation in stewardship, scholarship and professionalism before they leave law school to enter the legal profession.”
Stetson has a long history of community service. Stetson Law students donate more than 14,000 hours of pro bono services annually at more than 100 organizations in the Tampa Bay area and across Florida. Stetson was the first law school in Florida and one of the first in the nation to establish a pro bono service requirement for students and faculty.
First-year students Alex West (left) and Stephanie Pizarro clean the family residence area at Metropolitan Ministries in Tampa. "The reason I chose Stetson was because of their emphasis on community service," said Pizarro. "I don't necessarily want to go into public service, but I think you can serve wherever you are."
Greg Showers speaks to third-year students about public service and how pro bono work can make them more effective as lawyers. Click for high-resolution image.
Post date: Oct. 22, 2009
Media contact: Kate Bradshaw
[email protected] | 727-430-1580