The Atlanta Lawyer December 2016 / January 2017 | Page 8

FROM THE FOUNDATION Atlanta Bar Foundation Year In Review Michael B. Terry President, Atlanta Bar Foundation [email protected] The Atlanta Bar Foundation is the charitable arm of the Atlanta Bar Association. The Foundation is charged with fundraising, management of funds, and the expenditure of funds to further the charitable purposes of the Atlanta Bar Association. Its focus is Atlanta Bar affiliated and supported charitable projects that promote equal access to justice, assistance to youth and public understanding of the law. The Atlanta Bar Foundation also maintains an annual grant program to support Atlanta-area pro bono legal service providers serving low-income citizens in Atlanta. The Foundation had a banner year in 2016, and is poised for a recordbreaking year in 2017. The Foundation put on three signature fundraising events this year. The longest-running event is the Bard Show, a musical theater extravaganza written, choreographed 70 singing and dancing lawyers. The plot revolved around a three-way contested election for President of the State Bar. Hacked emails, illegal surveillance and a sports gambling ring run by a law firm impacted the fictional election. The writing, singing and dancing talent of the lawyers of the cast and crew helped raise over $37,000 in net proceeds for the Foundation. Our own battle of the bands, "Rock the Cash Bar: LawJam 2016" was held at The Buckhead Theatre in June of 2016. LawJam pits lawyer bands against one another in a musical and fundraising competition. This was the seventh LawJam event. The winning band for Best Band and Original Song in 2016 was The Tin Man. LawJam 2016 realized almost $35,000 in proceeds for the Foundation. The third signature fundraiser is the Legal Runaround. On September “The Foundation had a banner year in 2016, and is poised for a record-breaking year in 2017.” and performed by Atlanta lawyers and judges. This November, we presented an election-themed musical, “A Chorus Line XII: Mock the Vote.” “Mock the Vote” featured the largest cast ever for a Bard Show, with over 8 December 2016 / January 2017 10, 2016 the Atlanta Bar Association and Atlanta Police Department co-hosted the 16th Annual Legal Runaround 5K road race. This race raises money to provide college scholarships to children of Atlanta Police officers who have been disabled or killed in the line of duty. This year, the Legal Runaround generated the largest amount in many years, over $17,000. Signing these scholarship checks is one of my most meaningful duties as President of the Foundation. The Atlanta Bar Foundation directly supports several fine programs as well. One of these is the Minority and Diversity Clerkship Program (MD&C), supported by the Foundation since 1985. We placed seventeen first year law students in clerkships with firms and corporate legal departments, and placed three judicial clerks with judges. This combined to present twenty minority first year law students with an opportunity to learn within the Atlanta legal community. The MD&C program also supplements the students’ clerkship experience with support functions including skills development and formal and informal networking sessions. This program was the first of its kind in the country and has become an inspiration for th e development of similar programs by other bar associations. The Foundation also supported the Summer Law Internship Program (SLIP) in 2016 for the 24th straight year. In 2016, SLIP had forty-nine interns from thirty-three local high schools placed in law firms, cor-