TAMPA, Fla. — A team of attorneys from the full-service business law firm Shumaker, Loop & Kendrick, LLP and their clients played in The First Tee of Tampa Bay’s Spring Swing golf competition last week.

The April 21 event, hosted at Topgolf Tampa, benefits The First Tee of Tampa Bay, an organization that teaches children life skills through the game of golf. Team members played a target point-scoring game on a 215-yard outfield.

Attorney Mindi M. Richter organized the Shumaker team. She has been involved with The First Tee of Tampa Bay for several years, currently serving on the advisory board as second vice chair and a member of the Spring Swing planning committee. In 2018, she will serve as chair of the advisory board.

“Both of my parents played golf, and I grew up playing competitively in high school,” Richter said. “There aren’t a lot of women golfers out there, and it’s helped me personally as well as with my career. With The First Tee, we try to get young women involved in particular. It teaches great life skills, plus there are so many unused college golf scholarships for women.”

The First Tee of Tampa Bay serves 50,000 children in the community every year through hands-on golf experiences that introduce nine core values like honesty, perseverance and courtesy.

“The game of golf teaches so many important values that you can really use in your life,” Richter said. “All sports can be helpful in terms of developing children, but golf in particular allows you to be on a team but also play for yourself, so you have to have confidence, perseverance and judgment. When you learn these skills as a child, you can use them throughout your life.”

About Shumaker, Loop & Kendrick, LLP

Founded in 1925, Shumaker, Loop & Kendrick, LLP is a full-service law firm with more than 245 lawyers and five offices in Toledo and Columbus, Ohio; Tampa and Sarasota, Fla.; and Charlotte, N.C. Shumaker is a premier provider of quality legal services. Whether it's commitment to clients or work in the community, involvement lies at the core of all of Shumaker’s initiatives. 

About First Tee

The First Tee of Tampa Bay provides more than 50,000 children each year with hands-on, interactive golf experiences along with introducing them to The First Tee’s Nine Core Values. A program branch of the Tampa Metropolitan Area YMCA, The First Tee of Tampa Bay also partners with community members such as the Tampa Sports Authority, the City of Tampa and several area golf courses to offer year-round programming for its members. The First Tee program uses the game of golf to provide young people with the chance to develop life-enhancing values like confidence, perseverance and judgment. Whether through introductory programs in Hillsborough County public schools, afterschool programs at several local courses or week-long summer camp experiences, The First Tee shows children that golf is more than a game – it’s an opportunity to become the very best they can be.

About Mindi M. Richter

Mindi M. Richter is Board Certified as an Intellectual Property Law Specialist and has counseled clients in the areas of trademark selection, registration and protection, as well as trade secrets, copyright, patent and internet matters. Richter has experience in litigating intellectual property matters of all types, both in the United States Patent and Trademark Office as well as in state and federal courts across the country. Guiding clients in negotiating, developing and drafting licenses, assignments and other intellectual property contracts is another area of her experience. In the area of media law, Richter has advised clients on advertising compliance and false advertising claims, as well as defamation, rights of privacy and publicity, reporters' rights, subpoena defense and First Amendment.