REGULARS

A new lawyer in 1983, McCormick had signed on with Volunteers in Parole Inc. (VIP), a non-profit organization devoted to providing attorneys as mentors for youthful offenders.

The parolee, the youngest of nine children from South Carolina, had never learned the rules of society.

So McCormick set out to teach him.

He bought the works of Rousseau and John Locke, talked philosophy and politics, and gradually helped the parolee understand how to play by the rules.

Most importantly, McCormick said, "I reassured him that as long as he wanted to stay out of prison, I would be there for him. It didn't matter if he made a good decision or a bad decision, if he wanted to stay out of prison, I would be his family."

Sticking with it

With McCormick's help, the parolee got a job and graduated from college. Years later, he returned to the correctional system--as a deputy sheriff. When he married, McCormick was his best man.

"I believe it was all based on the fact that I let him know there would be somebody who would stick with him through thick and thin," McCormick said. "I was not going to abandon him."

In the years since, McCormick mentored another parolee, helped VIP to incorporate as a private, non-profit corporation, and has served as its treasurer since 1991.

In recognition of his volunteerism, McCormick last month received one of the first annual CYA Awards for Youth Mentoring.

The award was established by SB 1204, authored by Sen. Adam Schiff, D-Pasadena, and signed into law last fall by Gov. Wilson.

"Tom's efforts have inspired other professionals to follow his example and raise their commitment to the youth of California while enhancing community safety," said VIP executive director Mary Van Zomeren, who nominated McCormick for the award.

"He is a model volunteer and mentor."

Challenge to lawyers

VIP was founded about 30 years ago, prompted by then-Chief Justice Warren E. Burger's challenge to lawyers to "devote their special skills to the large problems of community and national concern."

In particular, he urged lawyers to help develop the American correctional system into "something other than a revolving door process."

Modeled after the Big Brother and Big Sister programs, VIP currently has 353 attorneys matched with parolees throughout California.

The son of schoolteachers, McCormick says he was a bit of a misfit growing up in Visalia. During college and law school, he concentrated on making himself a better person and fulfilling his parents' credo of giving something back to society.

"I don't really do this because of how it makes me feel," he says. "I truly believe it is everybody's responsibility to do something for society. If everybody took a little time to be nice to somebody, the world would be a better place."

A partner in McQuaid, Metzler, McCormick & Van Zandt LLP in San Francisco, McCormick, 42, handles complex business litigation and business matters. A founder of a high-tech company, he also helps entrepreneurs start, finance, expand and sell their ventures.

A second match

Nearly a decade after mentoring his first parolee, McCormick was matched with a second youth, released from the CYA after convictions for a variety of offenses, ranging from drugs to breaking and entering.

Although McCormick used the same mentoring strategies, the young man returned twice to jail for joyriding. After the second offense, McCormick asked the judge to crack down.

The parolee got the message, but he had another problem: as part of a family involved in the drug culture, he never gained a work ethic and had trouble holding a job.

McCormick, who owns an apartment building in the East Bay, gave the parolee an apartment, furnished it, and hired the man as assistant manager. He eventually moved to Stockton, where he works fulltime as an apprentice welder.

"He now understands the concept of what it means to work," McCormick says. "I had to work on him to understand he has to stay away from bad people, and that might have to include his parents. He finally understood he is his own person."

Giving back

With three children under the age of four, McCormick is not currently mentoring. He continues to raise and donate funds to VIP and remains in contact with his two success stories. When one recently had a baby, McCormick and his wife sent a box filled with their children's outgrown clothing and toys.

He views himself as a lucky man, who "but for the grace of God" could be living a different life. "I have a lot more money than I can use," he says. "It's all a matter of giving back."