Jacksonville Area Legal Aid raised more than $20,000 from its annual “Breakfast of Champions” fund raiser Wednesday, organizers said.
About 350 attorneys and individuals from the legal community attended the early morning fund raising event at the Radisson. Organizers said local law firms sponsored about 45 tables for the event.
Besides contributing to JALA, many attendees came to the event to hear this year’s guest speaker, pro bono attorney Stephen Hanlon.
Hanlon, a partner with Holland and Knight, currently manages the firm’s Community Services Team but is most widely known for his civil and minority rights work over the past 40 years.
JALA executive director Michael Figgins said the Breakfast of Champions event is one of the organization’s three major annual fund raisers. He said the money raised from the breakfast is enough to pay for “half of an attorney” and will go towards meeting JALA’s funding requirements to continue offering legal services to the community.
“This breakfast is just one piece of the important JALA funding puzzle,” Figgins said.