Winston For Good Heroes: Steve D’Amore Pays It Forward to the Community and to Other First-Generation Law Students

Steve D’Amore is a member of the firm’s executive committee and co-chair of Winston’s litigation department. Outside of work, he serves on the board of directors of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra and Gilda’s Club Chicago—a cancer support organization founded in honor of comedian Gilda Radner who famously was a warrior against cancer.

In addition to volunteering his time and expertise, Steve and his wife Kim are partnering with their alma mater—DePaul College of Law—and the University of Illinois College of Law to help aspiring first-generation lawyers achieve their dreams. Thanks to a founding gift from Steve and Kim, DePaul recently launched its First Generation in Law Scholars Program, a pipeline program that prepares diverse and other first-generation undergraduate students for law school and a career in law over three consecutive summers.

The First-Generation Law Scholars are drawn from Chicago-area colleges and universities and participate in an immersive and holistic experience during the summers following their freshman, sophomore, and junior years in college.

The program’s inaugural summer was extremely successful, and the University of Illinois has now joined forces with DePaul to help strengthen the program. In its announcement, the University of Illinois College of Law said it will “leverage its deep connections with the Chicago legal community to assist in placing students in internships, planning visits to law firms, and fundraising.”

Learn more about the DePaul First Generation in Law Scholars Program.