Lawyers Lend-A-Hand to Youth Recognizes Winston & Strawn Partner

Chicago corporate partner Steve Gavin was selected by the Lawyers Lend-A-Hand to Youth organization to receive the 2014 My Hero Award. Mr. Gavin received the award at a ceremony on September 16, 2014.

The Lawyers Lend-A-Hand to Youth Program was created by the Chicago Bar Association and the Chicago Bar Foundation in dedication to the lasting memory and generosity of the Honorable Judge Abraham Lincoln Marovitz. Since its inception, the Lend-A-Hand program has encouraged the legal community’s support and furtherance of exceptional mentoring programs for disadvantaged youth in the Chicago area.

Mr. Gavin was particularly honored for his work and involvement with one of our diversity pipeline initiatives, LINK Unlimited. Winston & Strawn has been a longtime supporter of LINK Unlimited, a Chicago-based organization that provides mentoring, college readiness counseling, leadership development, and summer work opportunities for African-American youths in need. Mr. Gavin’s most recent mentor, Fuad Akinbiyi, presented the award. Fuad is now a college student at the University of Illinois at Champaign-Urbana. In nominating Mr. Gavin for the award, Fuad noted, “[w]ithout seeing someone who has pushed themselves every day to make the lives of others better, I might not have learned how to be driven myself. I push myself every day in the classroom and as an athlete to be the best I can become in hopes of providing the same opportunity and love as my mentor has continuously shown me.”

Steve Gavin is the third Winston lawyer to be recognized by Lawyers Lend-A-Hand to Youth. In 2005, litigation partner Sam Mendenhall was honored with their Mentoring Program of the Year Award (now the Law Firm Partnership of the Year Award) and in 2013, former Chief Attorney Development Officer Paula Holderman and the Honorable James F. Holderman received the Abraham Lincoln Marovitz Philanthropic Award.