For the past four years, The Financial News & Daily Record has provided space in Monday’s Jacksonville Bar Bulletin for the Pro Bono Spotlight.
All of us in the pro bono legal community are deeply grateful for this resource. It is a weekly column that appears under my byline as the chair of the The Jacksonville Bar Association’s Pro Bono Committee.
It’s my role to organize the topics, coordinate deadlines, provide information and edit drafts.
However, it is the dedicated, enthusiastic and responsive team of law student volunteer ghostwriters who are drafting the majority of the stories we enjoy and make the weekly column possible.
The team I’m thanking is Jessie DaSilva, Morgan Eaves, Eileen Laux and Stephen Newell. These students are graduating from law school this month and all four have served the 4th Judicial Circuit as Pro Bono Spotlight writers.
It is with deep appreciation and hearty congratulations that we thank them in this week’s column.
Student ghostwriters are asked to commit to writing articles for at least two semesters. The student writers listed have been assisting for nearly two years.
Their topics have included pro bono success stories, pro bono attorneys of the month, pro bono projects, pro bono resources, essentially all topics pro bono.
They’ve met deadlines, provided research and have drafted dozens of articles.
DaSilva, Eaves, Laux and Newell have brought enthusiasm, a fresh perspective, creativity and excellent writing skills to each assignment.
They’ve served our Circuit with professionalism, determination and patience and their product was two years’ worth of wonderful stories of pro bono involvement and opportunity.
Here’s where you, my colleagues of the 4th Judicial Circuit, come into the story.
You provided the fodder for these great articles and, at the same time, nurtured some of the next generation of pro bono attorneys.
Your pro bono involvement has inspired us all to do more and to live our oath, “I will never reject, from any consideration personal to myself, the cause of the defenseless or oppressed.”
You’ve set the example of what it means to seriously take our commitment to justice.
It’s a commitment that extends to all, not just to those who have the ability to pay.
By doing so, you have helped many clients, stabilized countless families and strengthened our judicial system.
The pro bono attorneys in the 4th Judicial Circuit provide a picture of our profession at its best.
Thank you to Bailey Publishing for providing the space for the articles.
Thank you to our team of ghostwriters for composing the articles week after week.
And thank you to the hundreds of pro bono attorneys in the 4th Judicial Circuit and throughout Florida who faithfully serve low-income people with professionalism, energy and compassion.
“One Client. One Attorney. One Promise.”
This is the slogan of the One Campaign of the Florida Bar and the Florida Supreme Court.
This is how we defend justice. We do it one client at a time and it makes for quite an inspiring story.
For information on how to become involved in pro bono service in the 4th Circuit, contact Kathy Para, Pro Bono Committee chair of the Jacksonville Bar Association, [email protected]