Chicago (Aug. 10, 2007) – It was Raven Moore, a commercial litigation attorney at Reed Smith Sachnoff & Weaver, who received the 2007 Lend-A-Hand’s Making a Difference Award. But she would tell you that it is the grade school children and their teachers, with whom she has worked for three years on Chicago’s South Side, who have made the difference.
The award from The Abraham Lincoln Marovitz Lend-A-Hand Program, to honor those in the legal profession for outstanding contributions to tutoring or mentoring organizations, was presented Aug. 7 as part of the program’s Fourth Annual My Hero Awards Luncheon in Chicago.
Moore, a 2003 Tulane Law School graduate originally from Winfield, Ill., was recognized for mentoring third- to eighth-grade students at the Nino Heroes Elementary School, 8344 S. Commercial Ave., sometimes considered a “forgotten neighborhood,” said teacher Carolyn Sullivan.
“It is often times difficult to get volunteers or speakers to come here,” Sullivan noted. “But Raven does not even bat an eye and in the process has opened our students’ minds on the many possibilities out there for them.”
Moore volunteers in a program called Lawyer in the Classroom, organized by the Constitutional Rights Foundation to pair attorneys with Chicago Public School teachers to arrange and lead interactive programs that teach students about the government and the Constitution.
This year, Sullivan’s students focused on the Bill of Rights and what it would mean to them and to the nation if any of the 10 amendments were absent from the Constitution. Most recently they have discussed ongoing immigration rallies and the right to assembly. They’ve also held mock trials – serving as judge, jurors and litigators – on questions of fairness.
Jessica Chethik, executive director of the Constitutional Rights Foundation-Chicago, said, however, that the impression Moore has left on the students goes beyond a lesson in government. Moore and other attorneys in the program have also shown the students that others care about them and their futures, a trait educators hope will remain with the students through their lives.
“I have had the pleasure of observing Raven and her partners on several occasions, and the students and their teachers love her. She always treats the students with the utmost respect and is an excellent role model,” Chethik said.
In addition to representing Reed Smith’s Chicago office in the Lawyer in the Classroom program, Moore was selected earlier this year to represent the office on the firm’s Associates Committee, which is in part responsible for promoting mentoring and pro bono work throughout the firm’s 21 national and international offices and their 1,500 attorneys.
As such, Moore has inspired her peers in the Chicago office to also participate in the Lawyer in the Classroom program, noted Michael A. LoVallo, the office’s managing partner. In nominating Moore, he anticipated what her response would be to receiving the award.
“Raven routinely puts others before herself without seeking awards or even acknowledgement. She would just as soon have the children she has determinedly come to know over the past few years recognized than receive an honor herself,” he wrote.
And he was right.
Speaking at the award presentation, Moore deflected credit to others she claimed are more deserving, including her students and their teachers, both Sullivan and Laura Senteno.
“While I have done my best to encourage the students to think critically about issues and to wrestle with complex questions that lack simple answers, it is the teachers and students at Ninos who have taught me.
“Through Ms. Sullivan and Ms. Senteno, I have learned that passion for one’s career separates those who are good from those who are truly great. And through the students, I have learned that there are bright, thoughtful and inquisitive children in Chicago’s schools who yearn for and welcome mentors in their lives,” Moore said.
For more information, contact Nick Mariano, newsPRos, 312-207-2425
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