A collaboration between Conrad & Scherer, Nova Southeastern University’s Shepard Broad College of Law (NSU Law) and Fort Lauderdale High School’s Pre-Law Magnet program will help provide students with a viable pathway to a legal career. For the second consecutive year, Conrad & Scherer’s Pathways to Careers in Law will help students access scholarship funds to support those pursuing a bachelor’s degree in law at Nova Southeastern University.
Brendan Garcia, a senior at Fort Lauderdale High and resident of Fort Lauderdale, was one of the first students selected for a paid summer internship at Conrad & Scherer as part of the program.
“The internship gave me real-life work experience and a look at what practicing law is really like,” he says. “Everyone at the firm wanted me to succeed. It was a life-changing experience.”
Janine McGuire, an attorney at Conrad & Scherer for the past 25 years, says the internship and the scholarships are part of the program’s mission to allow under-represented students to experience the full continuum to a career in law, from high school through law school.
“We are thrilled to be able to add this important dimension to the Pathways program,” she says. “These scholarships will help students see that a career in law is possible.”
“NSU Law is excited about our continuing partnership with Conrad & Scherer,” José R. (Beto) Juárez Jr. says, Dean of NSU Law. “Our collaboration with them in the first year of the Pathways Program has already benefited Fort Lauderdale High School students who participate as well as NSU Law. Our new B.S. in Law major – one of a handful of undergraduate programs in law, housed at an accredited law school – has been enthusiastically received by more than 50 incoming freshmen at NSU. Conrad & Scherer’s generous support of scholarships for our undergraduate students who wish to pursue this new B.S. in Law major will assist us as we all work to diversify the legal profession.”
The Pathways program will commence this fall with an event for all law magnet students at Fort Lauderdale High, followed by the application process for selecting Fellows. All students will be eligible to apply for the Pathways scholarship.