Education is the bedrock of our society. For over 40 years, MSBA, through the Citizenship Law-Related Education Program (CLREP), has helped to shore up that foundation in Maryland schools through programs such as the annual MSBA High School Mock Trial Competition, Baltimore City Teen Court, the City Council Page Program, and the Law Links Summer Internship Program.

The Daily Record recognized CLREP Executive Director Shelley Brown (second from left) as one of Maryland’s Top 100 Women during a special event held April 23 at the Meyerhoff Symphony Hall in Baltimore. From left: CLREP Board of Directors Chair Barry L. Gogel, Brown, MSBA President Sara H. Arthur, and CLREP Board Member Deborah L. Potter.

“We do more than carry the MSBA banner into schools – we carry it into the future,” says Barry L. Gogel, a Partner in the law firm of Rifkin Weiner Livingston LLC and Chair of the CLREP Board of Directors. “Our programs are transformative to students’ lives.” In addition to teaching students practical life skills, adds Gogel, programs such as Law Links “allow students to see that our profession, and indeed all professions, are attainable to any student who has the desire to learn and achieve.”

Delivery of these programs relies heavily upon CLREP’s annual fundraising event, Trials & Tribulations, which incorporates an evening of compelling storytelling by fixtures of the state’s legal community (modeled on The Stoop Storytelling Series), usually centered on a common theme, with a silent auction.

This year’s program – slated for June 7 at Baltimore’s Westminster Hall – promises to carry on that tradition of hilarious, poignant, and always-engaging storytelling.

“This year’s theme is ‘A Family Affair’,” says Gogel. “We have an outstanding roster of storytellers, including Judge Joseph Murphy, Rebecca Murphy, Martin Welch, Jr., Jodie Buchman, Judge George Russell, III, and Judge George Russell, Jr., all of whom come from prominent legal families. Without giving away the store, let me just say that each has a story that should not be missed.”

From left: Shale Stiller, Alicia Wilson, Timothy Maloney, and Marilyn Mosby shared stories both humorous and harrowing at the Trials & Tribulations event held in November 2016 at the University of Baltimore School of Law.

“Storytelling has always been a wonderful way to educate, enlighten, and entertain young people, which is basically the mission of CLREP” – a name that has always been somewhat unwieldy, admits Gogel.

“But be at Trials & Tribulations on June 7 to see what we are doing about it,” he hints.

Tickets for Trials & Tribulations: A Family Affair are available online, or visit CLREP.org for more information.