LUNCH WITH A LAWYER CONTINUED FROM PAGE 29
with the youths and volunteer attorneys each summer in collaboration with the City’s program. The primary aim of the program Suhr suggested was to provide the youths with an opportunity to meet with a professional to share a meal and a conversation about the legal profession. Walter Brock, who chaired the Public Service Committee of the WCBA in 1995, thought this was a great idea, and the Lunch with a Lawyer Program was born. Suhr went on to run the program for the next 23 years. The Lunch with a Lawyer program is an informal mentorship program with the mission that casual encounters often make indelible impression on the minds of young people. Through the program, local youths were introduced not only to passionate local attorneys but also to influential jurists such as Burley Mitchell, Henry Frye, Mark Martin, James Wynn, John Edwards, G. K. Butterfield, Sid Eagles, Colon Willoughby, Howard Manning, Paul Ridgeway, Cheri Beasley, Patricia Timmons-Goodson, Charles Meeker and this year, Associate Justice Michael Morgan of the North Carolina Supreme Court. One summer, the WCBA introduced former Chief Justice Mitchell of the North Carolina Supreme Court as an inspirational speaker to the youth participants in the program. Chief Justice Mitchell told the youths that he himself did not know what else to do but hang around the corner of street with his buddies when he was at their age until he joined the U.S. Marines. He said he met his best friend in the Marines who was an African American and later became a General Motors executive. He said that it was this African American marine who straightened him out for good. The youths marveled at the former marine and enthusiastically asked him questions. This year, approximately 150 attorneys and judges signed up to mentor a student by taking them to lunch and discussing school, career paths, college majors, and other life goals. For the final event of the summer, all of the student and attorney participants in the program met at the Carolina Pines Park Community Center for a social. Among the attorneys and judges in attendance was Justice Morgan, who provided an engaging Destiny Pitts was partnered with Manning Fulton’s Debbie address to the youths and their parents. Everyone shared a meal, played games, and Hildebran-Bachofen shared memories about the summer. This year marks the 23rd anniversary of the Lunch with a Lawyer program. It is the longest running public service program in our local bar association. WCBA lawyers have since found ways to engage the youths in our community in other ways as well. For instance, each summer, the City of Raleigh has a Summer Youth Employment Program for youths living in Raleigh, mostly from the minority community. The Bar has provided volunteer lawyers to have lunch with the youths during the summers. This is an effort by the WCBA to reach out to the minority community, for the participating lawyers to serve as role models for the youths, to provide an opportunity for the youths to meet with a professional, and to create a positive impression of the legal profession by showing the youths and their parents the value of community and depending on one another for support and success. Suhr opined that it is critical that lawyers dedicate their lives to upholding the most elemental values of the profession: defending the defenseless and standing up for important but unpopular causes. “Without such efforts there will be no system of justice” Suhr said. “We must continue our efforts to reach out the community that we serve and especially the minority community. Our sense of decency and fairness demands it.” In addition to celebrating 23 years of the Lunch with a Lawyer program, this year also marks the 30th year of service to the City of Raleigh for Dwayne Patterson. Patterson has served as Director of Community Service Department (Community Engagement Division) for more than four years and worked for the City for more than twenty eight years. He has supported the Lunch with a Lawyer program as head of the Summer Youth Employment program in the past and instrumental in successful collaboration with the Wake County Bar Association for the program. Suhr said Patterson has personified “excellence” in his service to the community. Editor’s Note: The WCBA is deeply grateful to Paul Suhr for his 23 years of outstanding service. The program has flourished under his leadership and the WCBA is optimistic about continued success in the coming years under the leadership of WCBA member, attorney, and Wake County Magistrate Jacob Davis.
WAKE BAR FLYER • FOURTH QUARTER 2017
PAGE 30