Minority Mentoring Picnic
--Bringing Lawyers and Law Students Together--
By Jan Pudlow
Senior Editor
Under a perfect azure sky, Florida Bar Board of Governors member Ramon Abadin shoveled hot coals under a pair of whole pigs near the Cuban American Bar Association tent where a dominos tournament was in play.
Huge pots of paella laden with calamari and shrimp slowly simmered, mingling with the tantalizing smells of grilled lamb, sausage dogs, and soul food.
Reggae music drifted on the soft breeze as kids hoisted themselves up a rock-climbing wall, and adults practiced their serves for the upcoming volleyball tournament.
But most of the estimated 2,000 who showed up November 14 at Amelia Earhart Park in Hialeah came for more than good grub and fun games.
They came to teach and learn at the Sixth Annual Minority Mentoring Picnic, a huge event bringing law students from all over Florida to meet lawyers and judges willing to share what they know about the practice of law.
“I come every year. I wouldn’t miss it for the world. I’m a foot off the ground when I come to this picnic. Look at the students’ beautiful faces, always enthusiastic!” exclaimed U.S. District Judge Paul Huck as he pulled up a chair to a table of University of Florida law students, where Thérèse Vento, a partner at Shutts & Bowen’s Miami Litigation Department, was answering a student’s question about the pressure of billable hours.
“The concept of putting experienced lawyers with younger lawyers is terrific, because mentoring is such an important thing, and we don’t do enough of it. John Kozyak has taken it to another level,” Judge Huck said.
Miami lawyer Kozyak was running around hammering up banners listing the dozens of sponsors that included The Florida Bar Young Lawyers Division, and attending to last-minute details of the picnic that is his brainchild.
His longtime assistant Marta Cristobol described the climactic moment of the picnic for her boss: “I think the biggest thing for John is when everybody is here, and Ray Abadin cuts those two porks, and all the students are gathered around him. You have to see John in action. And he’s not even Cuban!”
Barbara Silverman, Kozyak’s wife and an appellate lawyer, said the picnic is truly her husband’s passion.
“It’s the highlight of his year. He loves to do this. It’s just amazing that it has grown from a small gathering at Books & Books years ago in the courtyard. The first little get-together was really more like a cocktail hour with the mentoring program at the University of Miami. Now it has spread the state, and now we’re 2,000 people!”
Silverman explains the spark that fuels Kozyak’s picnic passion.
“When John was growing up, he was exposed to segregated communities, and he really feels this is an important thing to do. We need to expand the practice of law to include everybody and to promote the minority students.”
Students from law schools all over Florida came out in full force, wearing big red “I need mentor” stickers emblazoned on their chests like bulls-eyes.
Florida A&M University law student Alicia McNeal held a plateful of paella and said she hoped she’d win the raffle drawing with the prize of shadowing BOG member Eugene Pettis, followed by a Miami Heat game.
“I am focused on sports law, so my whole focus is to meet someone who can be my mentor so I can make a smooth transition,” McNeal said.
Among 32 prizes raffled off included lunch at the snazzy Italian restaurant Il Gabbiano with former Justice Raoul Cantero, now a lawyer at White & Case, and shadowing 11th Circuit Judge Gill Freeman for a day, including lunch.
Rob Collins, a University of Miami law student, class of 2011, had drawn peace signs in the Os of his name badge and smiled when he talked about the mentor he has had for a year. Collins said he and 11th Circuit Judge Maria Korvick e-mail all the time and get together in person every few months.
“It’s been really helpful, just to give me perspective. I’m not from here. I am not well-versed in legal issues, and she’s a judge and knows it all,” Collins said.
Attending the picnic for the first time was attorney Craig Lawson, who has a solo criminal law practice in Boynton Beach.
“I think it’s a wonderful event. It gets a lot of people in touch with people who need some help looking for jobs and some advice from people who have been working for a while. I’m here to meet some people and see if I can do some good,” Lawson said.
Good advice was flowing at the Leaders & Legends tent, where every 20 minutes a new trio or duo of legal luminaries held court, including U.S. District Court Judge Patricia Seitz and retired judge Edward Rogers, the first African-American judge appointed in Palm Beach County in 1973.
Detra Shaw-Wilder, a shareholder at Kozyak, Tropin & Throckmorton and past president of the Gwen S. Cherry Bar Association, took the mike at the Leaders & Legends tent and told the students gathered: “The reason I spent countless unbillable hours putting this together is because I am passionate that minority law students have an opportunity to form relationships with the legal community early on in your career. Because what you are going to find is that these relationships are going to be invaluable to you in going forward.
“What I am hearing from law students is you are looking around you at law school, and there are not a lot of people who look like you. Then when you come out to practice in law firms, you are going to see even less people that look like you in the associate ranks. Then when you become partner, you may look around and see one or no other person who looks like you,” Shaw-Wilder said.
“We want to change that. And the way you change that is forging relationships.”
Samuel Japhets, originally from West Africa, born in Kumasi Ghana by an Ashanti mother and an Ibo (Nigerian) father, is a first year student at Nova Southeastern University Shepard Broad Law Center in Ft. Lauderdale.
Decked out in his Sunday best, he looked the part of the pastor he has been since age 19. From his vest pocket, he whipped out a business card identifying him as a juris doctor candidate, May 2012, and said: “The reason I came here is to get a mentor today. I would like to have more insight from a practitioner. Get to hear, get to know, and get to feel what the practice of law is like.”
Three days after the picnic, between classes, Japhets e-mailed an update on his first Minority Mentoring Picnic experience:
“Well, I did not attract a mentor as I had hoped, but I was not disappointed because I will be here for three years, and there will be lots of opportunities to meet possible mentors at other occasions. Interestingly, I had the rare opportunity of seeing the diverse blend of lawyers outside my law school environment and got to talk to a few strangers. It was very refreshing just being there.
“I had always wanted to belong to the legal community to experience another side compared to the only side I ever knew: the religious community. . . . So you will understand my exhilaration at being among my dream community: lawyers.
“My transition into the study of law from being a theologian is challenging, and I look forward to becoming a positive influence as I gradually navigate the difficult terrains of law school education.”