PBCBA BAR BULLETINS PBCBA Bulletin - March 2020 | Page 12

Member Spotlight Laurie Briggs by Nichole Segal Laurie Briggs is a Shareholder at Searcy Denney Scarola Barnhart & Shipley, where she has spent her entire 27-year legal career. She works primarily on tobacco litigation, overseeing and litigating the firm’s more than 500 tobacco cases. Laurie grew up in a small town in upstate New York. She attended college in New York and worked as a high school teacher and coach there for many years before moving to Florida to attend law school at Nova Southeastern University. Growing up, Laurie’s family instilled in her the importance of education and the need to give back to her community and do what she could to improve the area in which she lived. Laurie’s family did not have money to give, but they gave what they had: love and a home. The family lived on a farm and often took in teenagers from the community who had no place else to go. This example was the guiding force for Laurie as she looked for ways to help the people of Palm Beach County. Laurie is the president of the board of directors for Friends of Foster Children, Inc., a local charity dedicated to meeting the needs of children in foster care in Palm Beach County. Laurie has been on the board of the 35-year-old organization for 15 years and has been the president for the past 12 years. Laurie describes the organization, the motto of which is “Fostering Happy Childhoods”, as a small, niche charity that does amazing work for foster children and their caregivers. Friends of Foster Children offers several unique programs to foster children and their caregivers, including: providing tangible resources; a trauma-informed tutoring program; foster caregiver educational advocacy training, and; support groups for children and caregivers. Last year, Friends of Foster Children began a partnership with L.O.T. Health Services to provide free medical care to Palm Beach County foster children and their caregivers. Once a week, L.O.T. physicians go to the Friends of Foster Care facility and provide medical care to foster children and their foster families. If a child or caregiver needs specialty care, L.O.T. will arrange to have such care provided. In addition to her work with Friends of Foster Children, Laurie is the president of her firm’s employee charity, SDSBS Giving B.A.C.K. (Basic Acts of Community Kindness). Laurie and other employees started the charity to offer an opportunity for SDSBS employees to support the community as individuals, in addition to what the firm does as an organization. The idea is that by joining forces, individual employees can have a greater impact than they could giving on their own. Giving B.A.C.K. raises funds through weekly dress down days at SDSBS, where participating employees pay to dress casual on Fridays. The funds collected are distributed to local charities in West Palm Beach and Tallahassee. Giving B.A.C.K. also puts on an annual holiday toy, food and gift drive, a back-to-school drive, and assists local families in crisis. The beneficiaries of these charitable efforts are chosen by the employees and the organization is flexible enough that it can often jump into action when a need is identified. For example, last year, Giving B.A.C.K. learned that the teachers at Wynnebrook Elementary in West Palm Beach did not have enough teaching texts for all of the teachers. Through Giving B.A.C.K, Laurie and others at SDSBS raised the funds to provide all of the teachers at Wynnebrook with the texts they needed. Laurie has a passion for helping those in need in her community and the people of Palm Beach County are better for it. Her dedication to the less fortunate is inspiring and we are proud to have her as part of the PBCBA community. If you know a member who should be featured, please let us know by emailing [email protected] PBCBA BAR BULLETIN 12