THE
323
CHAMPION
LAW AND SOCIAL ORDER Legal Services combats social injustice by TIM LINAFELT
W
atching the world change while she grew up in the 1970s and ’80s instilled two distinct passions within Leslie PowellBoudreaux: a love for the law and a love for helping others. Thus inspired, Powell-Boudreaux earned a law degree at the University of North Carolina and, after stops in Miami and Pensacola, became the executive director of Legal Services of North Florida in Tallahassee. Founded in 1976, LSNF has five offices serving 16 counties. It provides legal aid and representation in civil matters to people of low income. More simply, as Powell-Boudreaux puts it, LSNF seeks to “get legal help to people who need it.” “We see ourselves as part of the community,” said Powell-Boudreaux, who moved to Tallahassee upon becoming executive director in 2016. “And we see ourselves as an organization that is created to help make not just the lives of the clients that we serve better, but the entire community better.” A North Carolina native, PowellBoudreaux has spent her life and career working toward those goals. As a child, Powell-Boudreaux remembers watching TV shows such as “The Jeffersons” and “Good Times”
30
January-February 2021
TALLAHASSEEMAGA ZINE.COM
↗
Leslie PowellBoudreaux finds that the assistance she extends her clients benefits the community as a whole.
after school and learning about issues of racial and social inequality. When the AIDS epidemic spread throughout the world in the 1980s, Powell-Boudreaux saw another example of how a group of people could be marginalized or forgotten. It didn’t take long for PowellBoudreaux to develop a feeling of responsibility. She was driven to help people in any way that she could. “There were points in time that didn’t make sense to me,” PowellBoudreaux said. “And the law was a way to make sense of those things.
“I don’t think that I would practice law if I wasn’t doing this work.” Powell-Boudreaux had plenty of encouragement along the way. Whether through a cherished civics teacher at Cary Senior High School, a number of mentors and advocates early in her career, or, perhaps most notably, a weekend retreat while in college with legendary civil rights activist C.T. Vivian, Powell-Boudreaux is grateful to those who helped guide her path. Vivian was a close colleague of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and was awarded the Presidential Medal of photography by SAIGE ROBERTS
