Stinson Attorneys Assist Pro Bono Client with STEM Initiative to Help Underserved Communities

03.02.2023

A team of Stinson LLP attorneys led by Joshua Poertner and Molly Maurin successfully secured an asset transfer on behalf of pro bono client MAPSCorps to Northwestern University’s School of Education and Social Policy.

The transfer bolsters the launch of a new national model for training and employing diverse and underserved high school and college students to work in STEM as community data scientists. This initiative will help students from underserved communities learn to use, collect and analyze large amounts of data to make their communities healthier and more vibrant. It also will serve as a pipeline for data science and STEM careers.

"Stinson attorneys have supported MAPSCorps as an independent 501(c)(3) for years. MAPSCorps programs, built on their innovative intellectual property, have trained thousands of students in Chicago, Illinois, and around the country," Poertner said. "We were pleased to help them transfer their intellectual property, knowledge, and experience to Northwestern where the program can make an even larger impact."  

MAPSCorps will join Northwestern's School of Education and Social Policy as part of the University's Digital Youth Network, and will no longer exist as a freestanding nonprofit entity.

"The team at Stinson delivered expertise with high energy across legal disciplines. The attorneys fully internalized MAPSCorps' vital mission and worked with seriousness of purpose – centered on the youth and communities we serve – to ensure the highest integrity process and outcome," MAPSCorps Founder, former President and current University of Chicago Catherine Lindsay Dobson Professor Dr. Stacy Lindau said. "The impact of MAPSCorps lives on in no small part due to the Stinson team's dedication to its mission."

Additional Stinson personnel involved in this matter include Partners Charley Jensen, Morgan Johnson, Howard Kaplan and Patricia Konopka, attorneys Elizabeth Delagardelle and Ian Herrera, and paralegals Patty Mart and Jennifer Rezac.

Read more about MAPSCorps' asset transfer.