Matching grants are a great way to support Southern Legal Counsel (SLC). These grants, also known as volunteer grants or “Dollars for Doers” grants, generally involve a company donating to a nonprofit where it’s employees volunteer.

SLC Pro Bono Director Samantha Howell was chosen by the Florida Pro Bono Coordinators Association (FPBCA) to receive the 2022 Kay Meyers Pro Bono Coordinator Award. Florida Chief Justice Charles Canady announced the award Jan. 20 at the annual Pro Bono Service Awards at the Florida Supreme Court.

With a $98,127 Pro Bono Transformation grant from The Florida Bar Foundation, Southern Legal Counsel has hired Samantha Howell as its first pro bono director and tasked her with integrating pro bono lawyers, law students, psychologists, social workers and other professionals into all aspects of SLC’s litigation and advocacy.

A member of the New York State Bar and the federal bar of the Southern District of New York, Howell most recently served as executive director of the NYS Chapter of the National Association of Social Workers. She previously served as pro bono director at Prisoners’ Legal Services, a statewide organization based in Albany, N.Y., where she developed the nation’s only pro bono program tasked specifically with referring civil legal cases involving conditions of confinement for indigent New Yorkers.