Minority mentoring picnic: 'diversity doesn't have to be scary'.

With a pair of 150-pound freshly slaughtered pigs loaded in the back of his vehicle, Coral Gables attorney Ken Schurr picked up his good friend, Ramon Abadin, president of The Florida Bar, and they headed to Amelia Earhart Park in Hialeah.

It was 5:30 a.m. on Saturday, October 31, and with the sun yet to rise over what would become the largest Annual Minority Mentoring Picnic yet in its dozen years.

More than 20 law students showed up before dawn to help place the pigs on grates and keep the coals burning.

Schurr put on a pot of coffee, cowboy style, on the cooker, and made baby-back rib sliders.

For the next six hours, the pigs slowly sizzled to perfection, under Abadin's watchful eye and recipe that includes mojo marinade and fresh fruit, and conversation between law students and seasoned lawyers flowed.

"It's a bonding thing," Schurr said, as he passed out his contact information and invited law students to call him if they ever need advice.

"You get to see a lot of lawyers who work on cases with you and against you. You get to see judges in a relaxed setting, and at least get to know them a little bit better."

The picnic is a special project for John Kozyak, who was honored with the 2015 Tobias Simon Pro Bono Award for his mentoring passion, and Detra Shaw-Wilder, managing partner at Kozyak Tropin & Throckmorton in Miami and managing director of the Kozyak Minority Mentoring Foundation that organizes the picnic.

In its dozen years, the picnic has taken off, with an estimated 5,000 people in attendance this year at what is billed as the "ultimate networking event."

"I was extremely impressed with the energy and level of engagement by the students from law schools around the...

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