Attorney Michele Macosky was at Central Elementary School the day President George W. Bush dropped by to view its Literacy Garden, a former stretch of asphalt converted into an outdoor reading oasis for the kids. Macosky spearheaded the project for the Lawyers Club of San Diego and helped cajole donations of trees, planter boxes and benches from local companies to decorate the garden at the City Heights school.

And Macosky was in the chambers of the County Supervisors when the board honored her for a project she organized for the nonprofit Center for Community Solutions, the construction of a play therapy area for child victims of domestic violence. For both of these projects, Macosky and fellow volunteers worked without any budgeted funds.

Macosky, 33, says in the five years she has been in solo law practice, she has devoted more than a third of her time to charitable work, from which she derives a great deal of pleasure.

“I really feel I have an obligation to contribute my time,” she says. “And I find it incredibly satisfying to be able to make a difference.” She is an active member of Consumer Attorneys of San Diego, the California Employment Lawyers Association and the San Diego County Commission on the Status of Women. In her legal practice, she handles employment law and civil rights cases, “where I seek to make a difference in very human cases.” She says a large part of her work is helping people facing discrimination or other job-related problems understand their rights. “Many are really in crisis when they come to me,” she says.

Macosky graduated from UCSD in 1991 with a double major in Spanish literature and political science (with honors from both departments). She graduated from UC Hastings College of Law in 1994 and passed the state bar exam that same year.

— Manny Cruz