LAWYERS CLUB OF SAN DIEGO AWARDS $16,000 IN GRANTS, 3 SCHOLARSHIPS AT ANNUAL HOLIDAY LUNCHEON

December 27, 2012 (San Diego)--Lawyers Club of San Diego presented grants totaling $16,000 to three local nonprofit organizations and awarded three law student scholarships at its annual holiday luncheon December 13, 2012.

Lawyers Club, through its Fund for Justice, awarded grants to Voices for Children in support of its Infant and Toddler program, to Casa Cornelia Law Center in support of its programs helping provide pro bono legal services to indigent immigrants in the San Diego community, and to the San Diego Volunteer Lawyer Program in support of its domestic violence clinic and the annual Women’s Resource Fair.

Lawyers Club also collected more than $10,000 in donations at the holiday luncheon to support future grants awarded by the Fund for Justice. The Fund for Justice was established in 1999 and awards grants to provide education, research, funding and programming to address social issues and specific problems relating to women and children in San Diego County. It is a donor-directed fund at The San Diego Foundation (Fund #6137). The Fund for Justice awarded its first grant in March 2000 and since then has provided 59 grants to 22 different organizations. More than $239,000 has been donated to the Lawyers Club Fund for Justice through contributions by individuals and through the support of past Lawyers Club events. The next fundraising event,“Red, White and Brew,” a wine and beer tasting, will be held January 31, 2013 at the San Diego Wine & Culinary Center.

Lawyers Club also presented scholarships to students from each of the three area law schools at the holiday luncheon, recognizing students who embody the mission of Lawyers Club.

Scholarship winners included Darlene Rabina, a third-year student at the University of San Diego School of Law; Melissa Mack, a second-year student at California Western School of Law; and Amy Loutit, a second-year student at Thomas Jefferson School of Law.

Rabina, a second-generation Filipina-American, grew up helping run her family’s elderly care home. During law school, she helped co-found the California Chapter of the nonprofit organization Bagong-Kulturang Pilipino, Inc., which opens mini-libraries in impoverished areas of the Philippines and has donated more than 20,000 in books since inception. In her first year with the organization, Rabina helped collect more than 5,000 books and went to the Philippines to supervise the creation of three libraries. Rabina received the Lawyers Club of San Diego Honorable Lynn Schenk Scholarship, which was established to honor past Lawyers Club president, USD School of Law alumna and former U.S. Congresswoman Lynn Schenk, and to provide financial support to a student member of Lawyers Club.

Mack, who received the Lawyers Club of San Diego Janeen Kerper Scholarship, has worked extensively in the area of family violence intervention and prevention. She hopes to pursue a legal career focused on those who have been victimized based on their gender, and specifically, to engage in this work on an international level to change cultural beliefs and laws that continue to treat women unequally. The Lawyers Club of San Diego Janeen Kerper Scholarship was established to provide financial support to a student enrolled at California Western School of Law who demonstrates support of the mission of Lawyers Club and is academically among the top 50 percent of his or her law school class.

Loutit dedicates her time to working with homeless adolescent women, advocating for fair treatment under the law regardless of residency or economic status, and working for change where minors’ access to reproductive healthcare continues to build barriers to success. Her goal is to pursue a career with the California State Department of Education in order to consult with schools about how to better enforce civil rights laws in their school districts. Loutit received the Lawyers Club Women and the Law Project Scholarship, which is awarded to a Thomas Jefferson School of Law student who demonstrates support of the mission of Lawyers Club, is academically among the top 50 percent of her or his law school class and has completed one year of law school.

More than 300 Lawyers Club members and friends attended the holiday luncheon, held at The Westin San Diego hotel.

Lawyers Club, founded in 1972 with the mission “to advance the status of women in the law and society,” now has more than 1000 members and celebrated its 40th anniversary in 2012.