Rothstein Rosenfeldt Adler Pays For Girl’s Law School
BY BUDDY NEVINS
Rothstein Rosenfeldt Adler is at it again giving away money.
This time the downtown Fort Lauderdale firm is helping pay for a 25-year-old Hialeah native to go to Florida International Law School.
Jesika Diaz had a tough life and Rosenfeldt Adler recognized they could help.
The law firm and FIU are giving Diaz a full scholarship. She started at FIU last week.
Why Diaz?
She was abandoned by her father at an early age, shunned by her family in her teens for being gay, faced with her younger brother’s untimely death, all while her grandmother was dying from lung cancer.
“She stands out in a lot of ways, name partner Stuart Rosenfeldt said. “She’s upbeat, despite everything she’s been through. We felt that if we could give her an opportunity to improve things in her life, it would be a worthy investment for our firm and our community.
Diaz recovered from her devastating losses and her family reconciled with her. She applied to FIU and was accepted.
But she had maxed out on her credit cards to pay for the funeral of her brother, who died in a car accident.
Diaz needed money.
It wasn’t just her economic need that compelled the law firm and FIU to get involved. It wasn’t just her academic excellence.
It was her compelling life story.
“She has gone through so much and persevered that she deserves a little help in fulfilling her dreams,” said FIU College of Law Dean R. Alexander Acosta.
Acosta said Diaz is the kind of student that, if supported now, will return to her community and give back.
“Investing in students such as Jesika is the right thing to do, Acosta said. “These are the future prosecutors, public defenders and compassionate attorneys that will come back into our community and help those less fortunate, because they know what it’s like to walk in their shoes.
So on that first day, when that first professor asked what brought her to FIU Law, Diaz smiled and decided to keep it simple after all.
“My mother always told me I should be a lawyer. She says I’ve always been good at holding my own.
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First point: This blog is from a news release written by my friend Jean-Paul Renaud, who left the newspaper biz and got a job at FIU’s media department. It is the newspaper biz’s loss. He is a gifted young journalist and did some fine investigative work while at the Sun-Sentinel.
Second point: This is the first release about the Rothstein Rosenfeldt Adler firm that I’ve ever seen quoting Rosenfeldt. That is usually the preview of Scott Rothstein.
Third point: My son Nathan Nevins just took the LSAT’s and is headed to law school. Do you have any more money laying around, Scott? Stuart?
August 24th, 2009 at 12:47 pm
This is a commendable thing for anyone to do, I am a mentor and I get as much out of mentoring as my mentees get. If you would like to mentor contact broward schools.
August 24th, 2009 at 12:55 pm
Over the past three summers, I have had first-year law students as judicial interns (one each from Nova, St. Thomas and most recently FIU). If Ms. Diaz is interested, she can contact me. Doesn’t pay, but it does offer an interesting summer in the criminal justice system AND free parking (plus bagels on Fridays).
August 24th, 2009 at 5:36 pm
RRA are a credit to the legal profession.