News of Note from Pitt: Certificate program targeting inner-city small businesses receives Hillman Family Foundation grant, JURIST names Pitt Law alumnus Matthew Shames as executive director

PITTSBURGH— Behind the larger stories about the University of Pittsburgh are other stories of faculty, staff, and student achievement as well as information on Pitt programs reaching new levels of success. The following is a compilation of some of those stories.

Certificate Program Targeting Inner-City Small Businesses Receives Hillman Family Foundation Grant

The Hillman Family Foundation has awarded a $75,000 grant to Urban Power to Prosper, a newly announced certificate program offered through the University of Pittsburgh’s Institute for Entrepreneurial Excellence.

Christine Kush, associate director of the institute, said the grant will help build a more robust program: “This grant will help the program in our mission to stimulate economic revitalization in lower-income urban communities,” Kush said. “The goal is to create employment opportunities within Pittsburgh’s neighborhoods, grow businesses, develop future community leaders, and enhance the quality of life for our citizens.”

Urban Power to Prosper is a certificate program designed to bolster established small business owners—specifically in inner-city neighborhoods—in their efforts to plan, achieve, and manage long-term growth and success. The classes address such topics as access to capital and new markets, financial management, strategic planning, sales strategies, and management of human resources.

The deadline for businesses to apply to the program is Nov. 30, 2011. To enroll, a business must be established for a minimum of three years in an inner-city neighborhood in Pittsburgh, have employees, and generate at least $300,000 in revenue. Class size is limited, and courses will begin in January. Applications for the inaugural class are now being accepted.

For more information about Urban Power to Prosper, contact Kush at cakush@katz.pitt.edu or 412-648-1806 or visit http://entrepreneur.pitt.edu/node/328.

The Institute for Entrepreneurial Excellence in the University of Pittsburgh’s Joseph M. Katz Graduate School of Business offers small businesses a dynamic mix of consulting, education, and networking resources.  It strives to be an innovative leader in connecting people, organizations, and resources in Western Pennsylvania.

For more information, contact Pitt News Representative Audrey M. Marks at 412-624-4238 (office), 832-296-7276 (cell), marksa@pitt.edu.  

JURIST Names Pitt Law Alumnus Matthew Shames as Executive Director

University of Pittsburgh School of Law alumnus Matthew Shames was recently named executive director of JURIST Legal News and Research Services, Inc. Housed in Pitt’s School of Law, JURIST produces a Web-based legal news publication and real-time legal news research powered by a mostly volunteer team of more than 50 part-time Pitt law student reporters, editors, and Web developers. 

As executive director, Shames will oversee JURIST’s business and development efforts, including outreach and educational initiatives, fundraising, and corporate management. Shames also will serve as JURIST’s in-house general counsel.

“Matt brings to JURIST a unique combination of legal, managerial, entrepreneurial, and technical experience, as well as longtime familiarity with and dedication to JURIST’s public service mission,” said Bernard Hibbitts, JURIST’s board chair and a professor of law in the Pit School of Law. “I know Matt’s energy and creativity will have a tremendously positive impact on JURIST in the months and years to come as he focuses on building JURIST’s institutional base and expanding its capacity to serve a large national and international audience.”

Prior to joining JURIST, Shames worked as a transactional attorney at the Pittsburgh law firms Buchanan Ingersoll & Rooney, P.C., and Cohen & Grigsby, P.C.

Shames earned his JD degree from Pitt’s law school in 2005; while there, he served as editor-in-chief of the University of Pittsburgh Law Review. Additionally, as one of the then-handful of JURIST student staffers, Shames helped develop JURIST’s Paper Chase legal news operation and was instrumental in recruiting the first class of JURIST student news anchors for what has since become JURIST’s flagship service.

JURIST Legal News and Research Services, Inc., focuses on legal issues with significant jurisprudential, social, and political implications, with an emphasis on quickly locating and presenting primary source materials—the judicial decisions, legislation, testimony, reports, and releases behind the legal news—so readers can evaluate those directly. Furthermore, JURIST attempts to assess and present legal news in a factual, objective, and neutral manner. JURIST is produced as a public service for the continuing legal education of its readers and law student staffers. For more information about JURIST, visit www.JURIST.org.

For more information contact Patricia Lomando White at 412-624-9101 (office), 412-215-9932 (cell), or laer@pitt.edu.

###

11/9/11/mab/lks/jdh