Melissa Pershing
Melissa Pershing, a lawyer and nonprofit manager with more than a decade of experience in legal aid-related work, joined The Florida Bar Foundation staff July 1 as director of legal assistance for the poor/law student assistance grant programs.
“Melissa’s experience is perfect for this position,” said Foundation President John Patterson. “We are fortunate that she is ready and willing to take on the many challenges we are facing in these times of reduced revenue.”
Pershing’s role will involve overseeing the distribution of grants to more than 30 Florida legal aid organizations for the provision of free civil legal assistance to low-income individuals and families, as well as formulating grant-making policies to achieve maximum impact and efficiency, assessing the legal needs of the client population, evaluating grantee performance, and reporting results to the Foundation’s board. In addition, Pershing will direct efforts to promote public interest and pro bono activities among law students through the Foundation’s Law Student Assistance Grant Program once the Foundation is able to restore that program’s funding. These grants have been suspended since 2011 due to severely reduced revenue from Florida’s Interest on Trust Accounts (IOTA) Program.
Pershing comes to the Foundation from Indianapolis, where she had served since 2011 as executive director of The Julian Center, Indiana’s largest domestic violence shelter. She has also led Indianapolis organizations serving people with ALS (Lou Gehrig’s disease) and HIV/AIDS and done consulting in nonprofit management. Her consulting work included leading peer review teams for the Ohio and Massachusetts Interest on Lawyers Trust Account (IOLTA) programs.
Before moving to Indiana, Pershing was executive director of Legal Services Alabama from 2004 to 2007 and Legal Services of North Carolina from 1998 to 2001, during which both organizations were undergoing mergers. After earning her law degree from the Georgia State University College of Law in 1994, she directed the North Carolina Bar Association’s pro bono program for three years.
From 2001 to 2004, Pershing served as program counsel/state planning for the Legal Services Corporation, which distributes federal funding for legal services to 134 independent, nonprofit legal services programs in all 50 states, the District of Columbia and all U.S. territories. She was assigned to work with a dozen states, including Florida, on partnerships and strategic planning, including review and evaluation of management, administrative and technology systems, professional development, succession and diversity planning, resource development and organizational configuration.
Prior to earning her law degree, Pershing worked in agency and corporate marketing communications for 12 years. She earned her bachelor’s degree in radio/television (media arts) from Butler University in Indianapolis. Pershing succeeds Paul Doyle, who retired after serving in the position for 22 years.
“I am so excited about the opportunity to join an organization as widely renowned as The Florida Bar Foundation and to follow after one of my professional heroes, Paul Doyle,” Pershing said.
