Miami attorney Melanie E. Damian was selected to receive The Florida Bar Young Lawyers Division Pro Bono Award for her contributions to those in need of free legal services. The award will be presented to Damian by Young Lawyers Division President Michael Faehner at the Florida Supreme Court on Thursday, April 7.

The award was instituted in 1991 by the Young Lawyers Division and is presented in conjunction with the Supreme Court of Florida and The Florida Bar's Pro Bono Service Awards. Generally, pro bono refers to legal services provided free of charge to those who cannot pay for them. The term "pro bono," derived from the Latin phrase "pro bono publico," means "for the good of the public."

Melanie Damian is a graduate of the University of Wisconsin, receiving her B.A. in 1991. She received her J.D. in 1996 from the University of Miami Law School, where she was a member of the University of Miami Law Review. She was also a Fulbright Junior Research Fellow in Mexico.

Damian is a partner with Damian and Valori, LLP, and practices business litigation including officer and director liability, corporate governance litigation, securities litigation, professional negligence litigation, and employment litigation. Damian is AV rated and admitted to practice in all Florida state courts, as well as the United States District Court for the Southern District of Florida, the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals and the United States Supreme Court. Damian is a member of The Florida Bar and The Florida Bar’s Business Law and Labor and Employment Law sections. She is also a member of the American Bar Association and the American Bar Association’s Litigation, Business Law, and Labor and Employment Sections, as well as the Dade County Bar Association.

Since her final year of law school when she did her clinical placement at the guardian ad litem office, Damian has donated hundreds of hours per year advocating for children in the foster care system through the guardian ad litem office and Lawyers for Children America. For example, from 1997 to the present, she represented five brothers who had been in and out of foster care since birth and needed advocacy for all aspects of their lives, from home placement and health care services to educational planning. One of the brothers is now in college and the others are also doing well in high school. In another matter, Damian represented at trial a mentally and physically handicapped child who was severely abused by his mother so that the child could be adopted into a safe and loving home.

In 2003, Damian founded a nonprofit organization called Educate Tomorrow, dedicated to helping foster children or otherwise disadvantaged students to attain post secondary education by matching the foster children with volunteers who assist them in researching and applying for post secondary education and obtaining financial aid and, in some cases, providing scholarships. In addition, the organization provides SAT and FCAT tutoring and assists children in graduating from high school and obtaining admission to post-secondary education. This organization now helps hundreds of children make post secondary education possible.

Damian is also the educational planning chair for the Miami-Dade "Its Your Life Program," a life skills training program developed for foster children who will soon turn 18 and age out of the foster care system. The program’s purpose is to provide specific services in the areas of money management, educational and employment opportunities, consumer issues, and housing.

[Updated: 11-29-2005 ]