MARTIN ELLIN | December 7, 2017
Sixty-two of the Host sponsors at this year’s Winetasting work at the law firm of Nelson Mullins.
When it is time to stand with a nonprofit friend who needs help from the breadth of your law firm, how do you build a team that will respond with previously unknown generosity and excitement?
If your firm is Nelson Mullins Riley & Scarborough, and your friend is the Atlanta Volunteer Lawyers Foundation asking for financial help to sustain the pro bono programs on which the poor of our community depend, it goes like this:
First, your Managing Partner (Michael Hollingsworth) sets the standard for his colleagues, directing the firm to make a substantial gift to the AVLF Winetasting while making a personal donation as well.
In 2017, 62 Nelson Mullins Riley & Scarborough lawyers become Hosts of the 26th Annual Winetasting, generating a contribution of well over $20,000 from the individuals who comprise the firm’s Atlanta office.
Next, the firm establishes a remarkable committee (composed of AVLF’s former Board President Mark VanderBroek, former AVLF board member June Lee, current AVLF board member Jennifer Malinovsky, former Atlanta Bar President and AVLF friend extraordinaire Wade Malone, and current AVLF junior board member Andrew Rosenzweig). Each of the committee members makes a generous personal gift, then reaches out through each of the firm’s departments to make a very personal appeal to every NMRS partner and associate, asking them to become Hosts of the AVLF Winetasting.
And a record number (crushing the former record from any law firm ever) of firm lawyers respond! In 2017, 62 Nelson Mullins Riley & Scarborough lawyers become Hosts of the 26th Annual Winetasting, generating a contribution of well over $20,000 from the individuals who comprise the firm’s Atlanta office!
That’s how.
We are grateful to Michael, Mark, June, Jennifer, Wade, and Andrew. They went to bat for AVLF and secured an unprecedented response. We are sincerely grateful to everyone at the firm that made a gift of any level. And we are grateful to the NMRS firm: as a group, you made a statement of support that was a deeply meaningful financial gift, and an emotional lift, to Atlanta Volunteer Lawyers Foundation. Our sincere thanks!
What’s this Winetasting we’re talking about? AVLF’s biggest fundraiser of the year, which is full of wine, tasty treats, and good friends. Check out this year’s event.
Marty Ellin
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Marty Ellin has served as the Executive Director of the Atlanta Volunteer Lawyers Foundation since 2001.