Nov. 16, 2013

Scouts launch Law Merit Badge Day

Seventy-five local members of the Boy Scouts of America attended the organization's first annual Law Merit Badge Day at Loyola Law School on Nov. 9. The Legal Eagles event included presentations from lawyers and law enforcement officers, including former Los Angeles County District Attorney Steve Cooley. Scouts from Los Angeles, Riverside and Ventura counties attended lectures at Loyola's Girardi Advocacy Center on legal history, civil law and criminal law covering subjects from the Code of Hammurabi to the U.S. jury system to patents and copyrights. Session leaders emphasized the value of scouting in career development. U.S. Supreme Court Justice Stephen G. Breyer, for example, attained the rank of Eagle Scout when he was only 12. The day concluded with a mock trial presided over by Jacqueline Connor, a retired Los Angeles County Superior Court judge. The Legal Eagles is a group of legal professionals who support the efforts of the Boy Scouts' Los Angeles Area Council by providing young people with a better understanding of the law in their lives and as a career through the presentation of the law merit badge. The event's sponsors included Dentons US LLP, Hobart Linzer LLP, Holland & Knight LLP, McKenna Long & Aldridge LLP and the Los Angeles county counsel. — Omar Shamout