Moving Pittsburgh's Legal Community Forward, Together

The PLDIC's Recruitment Committe is thrilled to announce that we have launched a job board on our website for legal job seekers in the Pittsburgh area. PLDIC member organizations are encouraged to select a job board manager and post jobs on behalf of their organizations. Job board managers will need to apply to be a manager (you'll need to be signed into the PLDIC Member Dashboard in order to manage your jobs). Anyone can access the PLDIC Job Board by visiting the PLDIC homepage. Please contact Megan Edwards with questions.

PLDIC member leaders: please check your inboxes next week for important information about 2025 PLDIC membership renewal.

UPCOMING EVENTS

Join us for the third annual PLDIC Members Holiday Party on Thursday, December 12 from 6-8 p.m. at the Mattress Factory. Guests will have free access to peruse the entire art museum while enjoying cocktails, appetizers, music, a photobooth, and networking with fellow colleagues and students from our 67 member organizations! Each attendee will receive one raffle ticket to be entered to win a grand "Pittsburgh Experience" prize (valued at over $500 and including tickets to the theater, a cooking school, the opera, and a distillery, as well as swag from the Pittsburgh Penguins and Pittsburgh Steelers - just to name a few)! As a bonus, if you bring a colleague who hasn’t attended a PLDIC event before OR a non-PLDIC member interested in learning more,* you will receive an extra raffle ticket to increase your chances of winning. Please register by December 6. *Please indicate that you a bringing someone by selecting “2” tickets at registration. In order for winners to accept their raffle prize, they must be present at the event when the winner is announced.

The PLDIC is excited to host this speed networking style event for the second year in a row. This event is designed to provide 1L law students who identify as diverse with an opportunity to meet with our member organizations who have available 2025 summer law clerk or internship positions for first year law students.

Last year, this event was a hit with students and employers alike - many 1L students received positions following the event!

“Thanks to this event, I was able to secure a law clerk position. I was fortunate to meet attorneys from different firms, and without this opportunity, I would not be where I am today. Finding ways to network and put yourself out there as a law school student can be overwhelming, but this event made the whole process less intimidating.” - Eva Morgan, Duquesne Kline 2L 

“PLDIC’s Speed Networking Event exposed our recruiting team to a host of terrific candidates who may have otherwise been unaware of our program. We were thrilled to be paired with an excellent law student who we met at the event and who did great work for us this summer.” - Samantha Mitchum, UPMC

If you are a diverse 1L law student who is interested in working in Pittsburgh in the summer of 2025, please register by January 10 and upload your resume with your registration. We will provide your resume to registered PLDIC member organizations in advance of the event. Please note: While we cannot guarantee an employment match, we are asking only PLDIC member organizations who are actively hiring for summer internships to participate in this event. Our goal is to have every registered member organization meet with at least five students. Please plan to arrive at the event by 5:30 p.m.

If you are a PLDIC Member and you can hire a 1L student for a 2025 summer law clerk or internship position and would like to diversify the pool of talent you are considering, please register by January 10 and plan to arrive at the event by 5:30 p.m. The PLDIC will provide you with resumes from all the registered law students in advance of the event.

If you have any questions about the event, please contact Ena Lebel.

The PLDIC Community Building Committee will relaunch its Brave Space/Self-Care series in 2025 with a focus on lawyers with disabilities. Lawyers with disabilities often face unique challenges that can impact their mental and physical health. Too often, they do not feel psychologically safe enough at work to discuss their personal needs and challenges. This quarterly series is open to everyone, with a focus on all Pittsburgh area lawyers and law students who identify as having a disability. It will alternate between facilitated conversations about living with a disability in the legal profession and structured classes focused on tools and skills to successfully navigate difficult situations at work and school. The goal of the series is not only to benefit individual lawyers, but also to provide these lawyers and law students with a sense of community and improve retention rates in the Pittsburgh legal profession.

The first event in the series will be a brave space session held on Friday, February 21 from 12-1 p.m. Erin McCluan of McCluan Law, PLLC, will serve as a facilitator for an open, honest discussion about what it means to be a lawyer with a disability.

Accommodations for this virtual event are available; please contact Ena Lebel if you need a specific accommodation/to discuss further.

The PLDIC proudly continues its partnership with the Boys & Girls Clubs of Western Pennsylvania, inspiring local youth to consider pursuing a legal career as part of our Legal Career Pathways Program. In November, we spent time at both the BCG Lawrenceville location on November 7, and BCG Shadyside on November 13, engaging students through interactive exercises, career captures, and fun fact patterns. We wouldn't be able to continue offering these important sessions without our dedicated volunteers including Barb Strnad, Sarra Terry, and Ryan Naumann, Dickie, McCamey & Chilcote; Judge Nicola Henry-Taylor; and Peter Ennis, Cozen O'Connor; and Jesse Exilus, City of Pittsburgh Law Department. If you'd like to learn more or may be interested in volunteering, please email Ena.

The PLDIC also once again partnered with Casa San Jose to visit youth this month as part of our Legal Career Pathways Program. Alexander Madrid, Kate Fox, McGuireWoods; Cristian Minor, UPMC; and Daniel Conlon, Tucker Arensberg; and Ryan Naumann, Dickie McCamey & Chilcote talked about their careers and led the youth participants through fun activities including mini-opening arguments and debating holiday candy. If you'd like to learn more or may be interested in volunteering, please email Ena.