Inside Education on PBS interviewed John Bertoldo about Bertoldo Carter Smith & Cullen’s first annual college scholarship essay contest.
“Basically my partners and I felt like this would be kind of a classy way of giving something back to the community that would really make a difference in maybe only a hand full of young people’s lives,” said Bertoldo in the interview.
The topic for the scholarship essay contest is the role of the civil tort system in America. According to BCS&C, a tort is “damage, injury, or a wrongful act is done willfully, negligently or in circumstances involving strict liability, for which a civil lawsuit can be brought.”
The essay contest is for high school seniors who are interested in the field of law. Each essay should be a minimum of three pages and should dig deep into the role of the civil tort system. Students can participate by uploading their essays to the firm’s Facebook page. Attorneys from the firm will select the top three candidates and fans will select the winner by voting for their favorite. The winner will receive a $5,000 scholarship.
“We want to attract the brightest and best of our community,” Bertoldo told Inside Education. “We have a law school here now, we didn’t, you know, a number of years ago. We want the best of Las Vegas to be involved in the legal profession. We want to promote the highest standards of excellence, the highest standards of integrity.”
The essay contest kicked off Dec. 1, 2012, and will run through March 1, 2013. To learn more, visit the firm’s Facebook page.