PBCBA BAR BULLETINS pbcba_bulletin_Dec. 2019 | Page 3

PRESIDENT’S MESSAGE Holiday Cheer and Diversity in the New Year! Jessica Callow 2019-20 PBCBA President Happy Holidays from my family to yours! As we excitedly prepare our homes for the various December festivities and make plans to spend the holidays with our family and friends, the Palm Beach County Bar Association (“PBCBA”) keeps moving full steam ahead with its programming. From now through January, the PBCBA’s Committee for Diversity and Inclusion (“CDI”) will be diligently collecting applications from law students, interviewing the students, and connecting them with employers participating in our summer Diversity Internship Program. While I’m proud of and awed by all of the PBCBA committees, CDI holds a place near and dear to my heart. In the summer of 2009, I co-chaired the PBCBA’s Inaugural Diversity Summit*, which included a panel of distinguished speakers and roundtable sessions with the leaders of local firms, businesses, government agencies and non-profit organizations. My fellow co-chairs were John Howe, with the Law Offices of John M. Howe, and Adam Rabin, with McCabe Rabin, P.A. The Summit was attended by approximately 250 attorneys and CDI has successfully planned annual diversity events each year since then. As a co-chair of CDI in 2010 with Adam Rabin, our committee revamped the existing Minority Law Clerk Program and created the Diversity Internship Program. What originally began as an internship program occurring during spring or fall law school semesters ultimately became a summer only program to enable greater student and firm participation and a more consistent schedule for all involved. The intent behind expanding the program was to ensure the interns gain valuable work experience, are able to network with local attorneys and members of the judiciary, and have opportunities at future employment. The goal of the program was and is to encourage the interns to begin their legal careers in Palm Beach County and remain with us as they grow professionally. This year’s CDI co-chairs, Jean Marie Middleton, with the Palm Beach County School District and a fellow member on the PBCBA Board of Directors, and Denise Mutamba, with the Legal Aid Society of Palm Beach County, are hitting it out of the park with the 2019-2020 programming. On November 5, 2019, over 100 members and guests attended the sold-out 10th Anniversary Legacy Celebration at BallenIsles Country Club. Attendees learned about the history of CDI and heard an inspiring speech by Evett Simmons, Esq. regarding the importance of both diversity in law firms and firm leadership taking an active role in fostering diversity. Additional programs overseen by Jean Marie, Denise and the CDI committee include collecting and reviewing nominations for the Judge Edward Rodgers Diversity Award and selecting the recipient, preparing articles for the Bulletin’s Diversity Corner (special thanks to Toni-Ann S. Brown with Boyd & Jenerette, P.A. for creating a list of topics for the articles and securing authors), providing Road to the Bench events and seminars, assisting with the law student session at the Bench Bar Conference, and teaching high school students networking skills. Additionally, the Diversity Internship PBCBA BAR BULLETIN 3 Program co-chairs, Masimba Mutamba, with the Human Rights Defense Center, and Tyrone Adras, with Greenberg Traurig, P.A., as well as the rest of the CDI committee, will organize and present seminars, luncheons and a wrap-up networking event thoughtfully hosted by Shutts & Bowen. These events teach the interns valuable practice skills and allow them to meet their fellow interns. The program runs from May 25, 2020 through August 7, 2020, and employers are encouraged to place an intern for a minimum of 6 weeks. Interns should work between 20 to 40 hours per week as determined independently by the intern and employer. Firms placing an intern will pay a minimum of $15 per hour while interns placed with government agencies are provided a $2,000 stipend for the summer made possible by generous donations from local firms and attorneys. If you are interested in hiring a diverse intern for the summer of 2020 or providing funding to allow students interning with government agencies to receive a stipend, please contact the CDI co-chairs. You can reach Jean Marie Middleton at jean. [email protected] or Denise Mutamba at dmutamba@ legalaidpbc.org. Participation in the program will be recognized by the PBCBA. As always, please reach out to me and the rest of the Board with any ideas, comments or concerns. We can be reached at [email protected]. PBCBA member highlight submissions for yourself or others should be sent to [email protected]. *In what is now known as the 1983 Summit, Judges Edward Rodgers, Daniel T.K. Hurley, and Harry Lee Anstead convened a historic series of ad hoc meetings in 1983 with local law firms to address the racial disparity in firms’ hiring practices and encourage the hiring of diverse attorneys.