DePaul Law continues its long-standing commitment to increase access to legal education through its newly launched First Generation in Law Scholars Program (FGLP). This comprehensive program will prepare a select group of students for law school over three consecutive summers while they are in college. The program is made possible by alumni Steve (JD ’94) and Kim D’Amore (JD ’94), who have generously pledged a special gift to help build this pipeline to the legal profession in Chicago and beyond. Their impactful contribution is the beginning of a longer-term initiative to inspire other committed individuals and organizers to raise additional funds for the program and ensure its success for years to come.
DePaul Law has long recognized that diversity in the legal profession remains an unrealized aspiration, and efforts over the last 20 years have resulted in incremental change at best. The profession needs more lawyers who are first-generation and from other historically underrepresented groups, including Black, Asian and Latinx lawyers. DePaul Law already has invested in a number of pipeline programs and initiatives, including the ILLSA forum (for Latinx high school and college students) and LegalTrek, a program in partnership with the Chicago Committee on Minorities in Large Law Firms.
With the D’Amores’ gift, FGLP will further strengthen the diversity pipeline by investing in first-generation students, with a focus on historically underrepresented groups and students who demonstrate a passion for STEM-related disciplines and law. The three-year, intensive summer program will provide rising freshmen, sophomores and juniors enrolled in Chicago-area colleges and universities with an immersive, holistic experience that will introduce them to law school, the legal profession and the practice of law. Students also will build their skills, through mentoring, internships and LSAT preparation, to enter law school successfully.
“We must do more to make the legal community fully representative of society as a whole, and one of the primary vehicles to create social mobility is to ensure access to law school and provide students with the skills necessary to achieve success,” says College of Law Dean Jennifer Rosato Perea, herself a first-generation law student. “Steve and Kim understand the importance of such education, as well as working towards greater diversity, equity and inclusion in the workplace. Their generosity will help increase the number of first-generation students and racial and ethnic minorities entering law school and the legal profession and inspire others to commit to this important goal.”
Steve D’Amore is a trial lawyer in Chicago and a chair of Winston & Strawn’s global litigation practice, where he also serves on the firm’s leadership team and executive committee. Steve has worked at Winston since joining the firm as a summer associate after his second year at the College of Law. Of FGLP and DePaul Law, Steve says, “It is the beginning of what Kim and I hope will be a major investment by DePaul alums to build a pipeline of excellent, diverse lawyers who have been shaped, as we were, by their first-generation challenges and opportunities.”
DePaul Law is proud to launch FGLP in Summer 2022. If you are interested in learning more, please visit the
FGLP webpage or contact
Assistant Director of Law Admissions Quinn David Furness at
quinn.furness@depaul.edu.