The Delaware Valley Legacy Fund announced the first recipient of its Sean Halpin Memorial Scholarship last month, and the local student is eager to honor the late openly gay attorney as he traverses his own career path.
DVLF selected Villanova University second-year law student Dwight Anthony Bailey, 29, for the $1,000 scholarship.
The scholarship fund was created about five years ago, shortly after Halpin’s death, and DVLF and a coalition of Halpin’s family and friends have raised more than $10,000 toward the fund, a portion of which comes from the annual Gay Community Day at the Phillies.
At the time of his death, Halpin, who sat on the boards of such organizations as AIDS Law Project and Equality Advocates Pennsylvania, was a litigation partner with Reed Smith, LLP. Larry Felzer, a friend of Halpin, said he created the fund to “keep Sean’s name and memory alive,” adding there are few other resources for local LGBT law students.
Perry Monastero, executive director of DVLF, said the organization received four applications and that the scholarship committee, comprised of family and friends of Halpin, saw promise in Bailey.
“They had a tough decision to make, but they recommended Dwight, and I think he was just a great choice,” Monastero said.
Felzer, who sat on the committee, said Bailey’s work and volunteer experiences, fused with his academic accomplishments, made him the ideal candidate for the scholarship.
“Sean was a partner at a big law firm but he did a lot of pro-bono work, so the scholarship really isn’t about the student taking the same exact career path, but more about if they’re willing to volunteer and give back, and I think Dwight absolutely will do that,” he said.
Bailey is a native Philadelphian, having lived in West Philadelphia before moving to Yeadon as an adolescent. He graduated from Temple University in 2005 with a degree in political science.
Bailey said becoming a lawyer has been one of his aspirations since he was a child — among a series of other goals.
“When I was a little kid, I wanted to be a singing-dancing-actor-lawyer-astronaut. I think astronaut’s off the list, but the other ones I’m checking off slowly but surely,” he joked.
“I’ve always been one of those people who likes to give advice when I think I know something that can benefit someone else; I recognize now that people don’t always care for that unsolicited advice, so I figured I could go into an industry where people who actually do want and need help and advice can come to me to get counsel,” he said.
Bailey is set to earn his law degree in 2011, and said that while he’s not entirely sure which area of law he’d like to practice, he is leaning toward criminal prosecution after spending a summer working at the District Attorney’s Office.
Bailey, who currently sits on the board of directors of the Gay and Lesbian Lawyers of Philadelphia and also volunteers with Villanova’s OUTLaw, its LGBT alliance, said the field of law has thus far been an accepting one.
He said he’s eager to continue his studies and enter the field as an openly gay attorney who, like Halpin, was proud of his orientation but did not allow it to overshadow his work or his other attributes.
“Since I applied for the scholarship, I’ve run into so many people who knew [Halpin] and who have so many good things to say about him and his work, and I saw that, yes, he was an openly gay man and that was an important part of who he was, but it’s not all there was,” Bailey said. “And for me, sure I’m a black guy, but I’m not just a black guy. And, yes, I’m a gay guy, but that’s just one part of me and it’s not based on other people’s conceptions of who a gay guy might be. He used his skills to help the community but didn’t allow himself to be strictly defined by his being gay, and that’s what I want also.”
Jen Colletta can be reached at [email protected].