K&L Gates Partners with Nonprofit City Year to Promote Literacy and Support America’s Future Lawyers

Boston - Global law firm K&L Gates LLP is partnering with nonprofit organization City Year, Inc. to promote literacy and education across the United States.

As a Lead Sponsor of City Year’s participation in the 2017 “Read Across America Day” taking place March 2nd, K&L Gates is mobilizing lawyers and staff in eight of the firm’s offices to join in the annual celebration of reading and literacy. Timed to commemorate the birthday of beloved children’s author Theodor Geisel (better known as Dr. Seuss) and in conjunction with City Year site representatives, individuals from K&L Gates’ Boston, Chicago, Los Angeles, Miami, New York, Palo Alto, Seattle, and Washington, D.C., offices will volunteer their time through a variety of “Read Across America Day” events such as guest classroom readings and after-school literacy programs.

A member of the AmeriCorps national service network, City Year is an education organization dedicated to helping students and schools succeed. Diverse teams of City Year AmeriCorps members provide high-impact student, classroom, and school-wide supports that help students stay in school and on track to graduate from high school, ready for college and career.

K&L Gates also will be hosting professional development events throughout the first part of 2017 for City Year AmeriCorps members who are interested in pursuing careers in the legal profession. The events will provide opportunities for K&L Gates lawyers to engage, mentor, and share advice and personal experiences with AmeriCorps members regarding law school, the work of lawyers, and the business of law, among other topics.

“We recognize that for law firms to ultimately be successful in growing and sustaining a more diverse workforce, we must provide critical resources and guidance to support students and schools in our urban centers,” said Jeffrey Berardi, Chief Marketing Officer or K&L Gates. “City Year is uniquely positioned to ensure that all students — many of whom have the potential to become America’s future lawyers — stay in school and on track. We are proud and excited to partner across numerous K&L Gates offices with City Year, an enormously well-respected nonprofit organization with a proven track record of demonstrating positive results in America’s schools.”

“City Year’s work in more than 300 schools is made possible by the support from private sector partners such as K&L Gates,” stated City Year Chief Development Officer Allison Graff-Weisner. “Enabling people to experience firsthand the impact we are having through volunteer opportunities like ‘Read Across America Day’ is a powerful way for our corporate partners to connect to students and our shared mission to ensure that all children have access to an excellent education and the academic and social-emotional supports they need to succeed.”

K&L Gates’ partnership with City Year joins a number of other community-focused initiatives and efforts. These include the firm’s innovative Global Day of Service, an annual week-long volunteer effort across five continents that features lawyers and staff volunteering with charitable organizations in cities and regions throughout the firm’s global platform. Other examples of the firm’s strong community partnerships include K&L Gates’ work with Corporate Counsel Women of Color (CCWC) — with the firm having served as the title sponsor for CCWC’s Annual Career Strategies Conference for nearly a dozen years, helping to earn K&L Gates the honor of Outstanding Firm for Furthering Women’s Advancement (Recruitment, Retention and Promotion) in the 2015 Chambers Women in Law Awards, USA — and Pause, a London-based charity focused on social services for women caught in the destructive cycle of having multiple children taken into authoritative care, for which the firm was recognized with the 2016 LawWorks Pro Bono Award for the Most Effective Pro Bono partnership.