2008 Woodie Awards
Students Raise Money, Hands for Students
From Staff Reports
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The University of Baltimore Students for Public Interest Law's (UBSPI) 13th Annual Goods and Services Auction will be at 6 p.m. on Feb. 9 at The Belvedere at 1 E. Chase St.
The most visible sign of the upcoming auction is the growing pile of purple donation forms. "Right now, we have a lot of fantastic lunches with law professors and gift certificates to places around town," said Ray Dubicki, third-year law student and UBSPI president. "The big cases of wine and gift baskets tend to come in the last week."
Admission to the event is $20 for guests and $10 for UB students. Tickets include light food and refreshments, and the opportunity to bid on silent and live auction items. Ten-person tables also are available for $175.
"We found that bidding got competitive between tables," Dubicki said. "We want to support that."
Competition between tables pays off: in the past two years, the auction has raised almost $90,000. The funds provide salaries for students to pursue normally unpaid work with local public interest organizations. Last summer, 10 grants were distributed. Students found positions in organizations including the Maryland Crime Victim's Resource Center, Friends of the Family, Inc., Homeless Persons Representation Project, the Maryland State Public Defender and the Legal Aid Bureau of Maryland.
Also at the auction, UBSPI presents the Judge Robert M. Bell Award for Leadership in Public Service. This year, the UBSPI Advisory Board selected Charles O. Monk II, managing partner of Saul Ewing, LLP, as the award recipient.
At the Baltimore law office, Monk led the firm's pro bono initiative. The program, called "We're All In," pledged 25 hours of pro bono work from each of the firm's 280 attorneys. The firm chose to focus its work on the underrepresented population of elderly persons and veterans.
Under Monk's leadership, the pro bono participation rate approached 99 percent each of the past two years. Monk also serves on numerous boards for charitable, civic and cultural organizations throughout Baltimore.
In addition to recognizing valued members of the public interest community and funding grants to law students, Dubicki pointed out one more benefit of the auction: community building.
"It gets a lot of people together from different corners of Baltimore's legal society," he said. "These are folks who don't normally get to talk, and the auction brings them together. Then they ferociously bid against each other to go golfing with Dean [Gilbert] Holmes."
13th Annual UBSPI
Goods and Services Auction
Feb. 9, 6 p.m.
The Belvedere
1 E. Chase St.
Baltimore, MD 21202
$10 students; $20 general
Ray Dubicki, UBSPI president
web-www.ubspi.org
phone-410.837.5671
e-mail-ubspi@hotmail.com