PHOTOS COURTESY OF DAVID MUIR,DAVIDIPHOTO

 

FORT LAUDERDALE — In celebration of Black History Month, South Florida’s legal community banded together for two events designed to empower aspiring young minority professionals.

On Feb. 25, the Urban League of Broward County dedicated the Pathway to Empowerment, envisioned by former Florida Bar President Eugene Pettis, and hosted a concurrent official reception for Jon M. Garon, the new dean of the Shepard Broad Law Center at Nova Southeastern University.

The Pathway to Empowerment links the league’s offices and training center, 560 NW 27th Ave., with the African-American Research Library and Cultural Center, 2650 Sistrunk Blvd. Pettis served as the Florida Bar’s first black president. Contributors included Urban League board member Sidney Calloway, a partner at Shutts & Bowen LLP; W. George Allen and Enid Meadows Allen; Jay and Rebecca Cohen; state Rep. Bobby and Yvette DuBose; Samuel F. Morrison; and Sen. Chris and Desorae Smith.

After the dedication, the Urban League hosted a welcome celebration for Garon. Sponsors included Shutts & Bowen LLP, the T.J. Reddick Bar Association, the Gwen S. Cherry Black Female Lawyers Bar Association, and the H. Wayne Huizenga School of Business and Entrepreneurship at NSU.

The event included a cross-section of Broward’s legal, civic, and academic leadership and judiciary communities.

At the reception, Garon and Calloway announced Nova’s Global Law Leadership Initiative, an elective immersion curriculum beginning with the August 2015 entering class designed to develop the technological, financial, and global competencies essential to modern law practice, incorporating an international perspective and promoting minority empowerment.

“This is important for our own growth and for the growth of the community,” said Calloway, a longtime legal and civic leader, and mentor to aspiring lawyers for more than two decades. Calloway is former president of the T.J. Reddick Bar Association and former chair of the Greater Fort Lauderdale Chamber of Commerce.