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Earlier this month, Proskauer was a proud participant in Student Leadership Network’s Cool Careers, Potential Paths day at their Young Women’s Leadership School of Manhattan. At the event, Firm volunteers, including lawyers and business staff, shared their education and career paths with a class of high school seniors. Our panelists discussed how choices they made shaped their successes and failures along the way, and talked about the importance of mentorship, soft skills, teamwork, participating in college activities, and the need for hard work and balance in one’s life. Brad Ruskin, co-chair of the Firm’s Sports Law Group has been a member of Student Leadership Network’s Board since 2014 and Board Chair since 2023.

On October 20th, we were so pleased to welcome Match Charter Public High School back to our offices for the first time since the pandemic began, when we met with the 2022-23 class of juniors. Since 2016, our Boston office has partnered with Match Charter Public High School through our Adopt-a-School program, which is the Firm’s signature education initiative, connecting students from public and charter high schools throughout the country to meaningful workshops, discussions and panels designed to increase their college and career readiness. Activities leverage the expertise of our lawyers and business professionals and successfully help students develop new skills, build relationships, and identify new career paths and passions – inspiring our future leaders to realize their full potential. Since launching our Boston program, we have engaged 275 Proskauer volunteers who worked with 125 students across 51 workshops.

Last month, we concluded the sixth year of our Adopt-a-School program, Proskauer’s signature education initiative that provides career and college readiness to high-achieving, low-income high school students across the country, with a panel discussion focusing on diversity and inclusion in college and the workplace. We planned carefully to facilitate a remote session with the same level of educational, interactive conversation that drives our in-person monthly workshops. We gathered around our computers at home for our first-ever virtual meeting with the students who were finishing up their junior year at our five partner high schools. Even with the challenge of connecting remotely, our final session brought us together beyond what we could imagine.

Our discussion featured panelists with various job roles across the Firm, all from diverse backgrounds: manager of client operations Gil Desroches, associate Winnie Ma, manager of diversity and inclusion Courtney Paul, associate Hena Vora and associate Bryant Wright, moderated by associate director of CSR Wendy Dessy. The panel discussion centered on the topic of diversity and inclusion at college and in the workplace, providing the students with a thought-provoking conversation at what seemed to be exactly the right time.

We work with iMentor to empower first-generation students from low-income communities to graduate high school, succeed in college and achieve their ambitions. Last week, our mentees Elizabeth and Steven joined us at our New York City offices as part of iMentor’s “take your mentee to work day.”  Elizabeth and Steven are high school juniors at Bronx High School for Law and Community Service.

After picking our mentees up from the Bryant Park subway stop, we welcomed them to the office and gave them a tour of the space. Elizabeth then shadowed a finance conference call with corporate partner Ron Franklin, while Steven met with attorneys from various departments. No visit to the Proskauer offices would be complete without a trip to Shake Shack, enjoyed in our cafeteria at a table that gave us expansive views of the city. At lunch, we talked about our college experiences and our mentees’ future career goals. Our mentees asked a lot of questions about the transition to college (which is starting to feel like a long time ago for us!), and about why we decided to attend our respective colleges and ultimately decided to become lawyers.

It was a sunny afternoon in May when students from Proskauer’s Adopt-a-School Partner, Manhattan Hunter Science High School, and members of the Firm’s professional resources team boarded a ferry to Governors Island. Our primary objective was to assist with the expansion of the GrowNYC Teaching Garden. By the time we boarded the return ferry back to Manhattan, we had expanded the garden as well as our appreciation for the impactful work that GrowNYC is doing for our city.