2017 Girl Scouts Project Law Track: Lake County

As a full-time working mom of three kids, I often start my day reviewing emails to start tackling forever-growing list of “To-Dos.” One such morning in 2016, I received an email with a flyer for the Girl Scouts’ Project Law Track from my daughter’s Brownie Troop Leader, who forwarded it to me and a fellow Troop mom (since we are both family law attorneys in Lake County) expressing interest in this activity for when our daughters were older. The idea was to have “real world law professionals” work with girls between 6th and 12th grades to learn about the legal profession and put on a mock trial at the end. Seeing that the program involved the girls attending four sessions--three on weeknights and one Saturday morning-- and noticing that it was being offered in Chicago and DuPage County, I was disappointed realizing that the likelihood of my daughter being able to participate once she was old enough was slim given the time and location challenges that it would present to a working mom like me. I decided to send two emails of my own: one to the Girl Scouts event contact asking how we could expand this offering to Lake County and another to a group of judges and attorneys whom I thought would be able to direct me to the appropriate contact people to get permission to bring the event to Lake County.

For the Spring 2016 season, I attended two of the Chicago sessions and two of the DuPage sessions to get a feel for the program and then began planning. Working with both the Lake County Bar Association’s Community Outreach Committee and the Association of Women Attorneys of Lake County, two of my colleagues (Karissa Anderson and Rebecca Whitcombe) and I worked to organize the event for Spring 2017 utilizing the program format that Chicago and DuPage had been using for a few years.

Throughout April and May, 2017, we held three weeknight sessions in Waukegan for the seven middle school participants who signed up for the inaugural Lake County activity. The first night we gave them an overview of the law and court system and explored how the law was similar to and different from the portrayals in the media. The second night the group learned a bit about the process of becoming a lawyer, toured a law office and met with three different panels of Judges, different types of attorneys and a group of courthouse professionals. The third night, the girls worked with volunteer mentor attorneys to understand, practice and perfect their individual roles in the upcoming mock trial activity. On the final day, the girls took a tour of the Circuit Clerk’s office and met again with their mentors before heading to the real courtroom to put on their mock trial before Judge Nancy Waites, her deputy and a “jury panel” of volunteer lawyers (and a Girl Scout helper…my own Junior Girl Scout daughter).

The seven girls who participated were all very excited to be there, engaged in the entire activity process, and took their roles seriously as their family and friends watched from the gallery. Following the reading of the jury verdict, the girls were each awarded with a patch and certificate for their hard work (while everyone enjoyed the reward of Girl Scout Cookies). It was a great experience for all (participants and volunteer mentors alike) and we are excited to improve on the program, which we plan to put on again in March, 2018. Anyone who is interested in learning more about the program or volunteering is welcome to contact me at KCF@Fingerhutlaw.com

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Kristie C. Fingerhut is a busy (and often tired) Soccer Mom and Girl Scout Cookie Mom who also practices family law in Libertyville, Illinois, at the Law Offices of Kristie C. Fingerhut.