Lawyers e-Journal
Thursday, Aug. 25, 2011
Photograph by
A. Maharaj, The Canadian Press Images
From left to right: MBA Secretary Marsha V. Kazarosian, MBA President-elect Richard P. Campbell, Norfolk and Family Court First Justice Angela M. Ordoñez, MBA President Denise Squillante and Karol Corbin Walker of the National Council for Bar Presidents at an Aug. 5 luncheon held at the Fairmont Royal York in Toronto, Canada.
MBA Tiered Community Mentoring Program honored with ABA partnership award
The Massachusetts Bar Association's Tiered Community Mentoring
Program has been honored with the 2011 ABA Partnership Award from
the American Bar Association. The program was selected because of
its commitment to diversity.
The program -- a collaboration among the MBA, Suffolk University
Law School, Boston University Law School, Roxbury Community
College, UMASS Boston and New Mission High School -- aims to reach
urban high school students by building a diverse mentoring network.
The program matches tiered groups, comprised of a high school
student, an undergraduate student, a law student and an
attorney.
The program began in October 2009 and was the brainchild of
Norfolk and Family Court First Justice Angela M. Ordoñez, who said
the innovative mentoring structure creates opportunities that would
not otherwise exist.
"Many students write themselves out of a career in law because
they have never met a lawyer." Ordoñez said. "This program not only
acquaints students with lawyers, but it provides mentor
relationships that open up the doors of possibility. Once these
students learn the details of careers in the law, it becomes an
attainable goal."
The ABA Partnership Awards Program salutes bar association
projects that seek to increase the participation and advancement of
lawyers of color as well as other underrepresented
constituents-attorneys with disabilities, women attorneys and those
who are lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgendered-and to attract
students from these groups to the legal profession.
The MBA was one of three award honorees. The other recipients
are the New Jersey State Bar Foundation and the Mecklenburg County
Bar Association.