2010 Pro Bono & Community Service Honors Awards: News

2010 Pro Bono & Community Service Honors Awards

Twelve thousand sixty-four hours, more time than six people put in working full time for a year, this is how many hours of volunteer work Lewis & Clark Law Students reported completing during the 2009-2010 school year.

On April 15, 2010, Lewis & Clark recognized students who completed 30 or more hours of volunteer time over the previous year at the annual Pro Bono and Community Service Honors Lunch. Recipient of the 2009 Multnomah Bar Association Pro Bono Award of Merit Bonnie Richardson of Folawn, Alterman, and Richardson delivered spoke at the lunch. Ms. Richardson’s remarks focused on the importance pro bono plays in giving balance and greater meaning to the work of being a lawyer.

The awards recognize students in two categories, law-related pro bono work, and general volunteer community service work. 19% of enrolled students reported doing at least one hour of volunteer work during the 2009-2010 school year. While attending Lewis & Clark, 21% of the graduating class of 2010 received at least one Pro Bono or Community Service Award.

The volunteer stories of 3L Ginger Beck and 2L Adam Adkin show the differences that students can make. Ginger received a 2010 Community Service Honors Award along with 59 other students, and Adam received a 2010 Pro Bono Honors Award along with 122 other students. A hand full of students received both awards making a total of 142 student award recipients.

At the start of her first year of law school in 2007, Ginger Beck met a high school sophomore from Franklin High School. The Portland Chapter of the non-profit Minds Matter connected Ginger and the student with each other and provided a framework for their relationship. Throughout her three years of law school, Ginger acted as an academic mentor to that high school student receiving a Community Service Honors Award for her work each year. Beyond the counting of hours and the certificates, Ginger did something much greater, she became part of a student’s life. Minds Matter focuses on connecting mentors with talented high school students who lack the resources and background to reach college and their full potential. By meeting with mentors, high school students build skills and gain support to attend summer pre-college programs and, ultimately, college. With Ginger’s help and support, her mentee raised her GPA every semester all the way to a 4.0 and attended summer pre-college programs at both Boston and American Universities. In June of 2010, just two weeks after Ginger graduates from law school, her mentee will graduate high school admitted to Western Oregon University with plans of being the first person in her family to earn a four-year degree and then, maybe, law school. Ginger will be taking the Oregon Bar exam this summer and plans to seek work at either a criminal defense or direct legal services organization in Portland.

Adam Adkin was a busy second year law student. This year, he served as one of three Auction Directors responsible for the fundraising of the student-run Public Interest Law Project (PILP); he was on the staff of the Lewis & Clark Law Review; and he made time to do pro bono work. Adam received a 2010 Pro Bono Honors Award for his work with the Community Development Law Center (CDLC). The CDLC works to provide low cost legal services and self help training to non-profits serving low-income people. While at CDLC, Adam helped determine proper whistleblower policies for nonprofits and helped create materials to assist a nonprofit with establishing a program to make loans to low-income individuals and families. Adam will be working full time this summer at the CDLC with the assistance of a PILP stipend for which he helped fundraise. When asked to reflect on his pro bono work, Adam said, “I believe that lawyers are in a unique position to assist others, and I take pride in being part of the student body at Lewis and Clark that has made a great showing of its commitment to serving others.”