The Business of Kindness

Shannon Puopolo has never been one to sit on the sidelines. In middle school, she organized a cleanup at nearby Bonita Beach through her National Junior Honor Society. In high school, she played first-seat violin and captained her cross-country team while holding down a part-time job.

“I don’t sleep a lot,” Puopolo says. “If I’m sitting still and relaxing, I feel like I need to be doing something. I just like to be involved. I like to be doing things all the time.”

Her high school track coach, John Williams, served as an early mentor—the first of many, it turns out. At every step of her life, she says, wonderful people have mentored and served as role models for her.

“To this day, I still try to achieve what I can based on the teachings he instilled in me,” she says. “He really just believed in us and tried to push us … and I really think that motivated me and definitely gave me grit.”

When Puopolo was finishing her freshman year in college, she called the Collier County Bar Association to ask if she could help out over the summer. The association had no formal internship or paid position, but executive director Courtney Curatolo welcomed her nonetheless, and created an internship.

“Once I got that foot in the door, that made it easier to get the next internship, and the next one,” Puopolo notes. “People who do little things like that for people, just little acts of kindness, really catapult someone’s career.”

The mentoring continued after Puopolo got her J.D. and joined her current firm. “I really appreciated when older attorneys took me under their wing and taught me when I was starting off,” she says. “So I really like to do that for law students or new incoming attorneys.”

As an adjunct professor at Ave Maria School of Law in Naples, Puopolo teaches skills to help students become strong interns and lawyers. She’s also coached a mock trial team at a local high school, collecting clothing and accessories so her less affluent students could proudly compete against private-school teams. Through a Foundation for Lee County Public Schools program for at-risk kids, she mentored one student from sixth grade through sophomore year of high school. 

At her firm, Puopolo encourages public service, and as a recruiter, she seeks out service-minded candidates. After running the firm’s summer internship program for several years, she now oversees hiring of summer associates and new attorneys; and as co-chair of the associate committee, she mentors junior attorneys. 

“Our firm puts a lot of emphasis on community involvement, so we want people who are interested in that as well,” she says. “With our summer associate program, we do some charity days where we get them involved working at the soup kitchen; things like that. We want to make sure that they are a good fit and that they share that common goal of ours to give back to the community.”

Puopolo herself is usually busy raising funds for multiple causes, volunteering with professional associations, helping neighbors in need, or playing Mrs. Claus for her firm’s holiday charity event, delivering smiles and gifts to underserved kids. Last year, as a team captain for her firm’s annual United Way campaign, she helped raise $20,000. She’s also secretary of the board of the Middle District of Florida Bankruptcy Pro Se Assistance Clinic. 

In 2022, she was board president of the Lee County Bar Association Foundation when Hurricane Ian devastated southwest Florida, leaving thousands scrambling to recover, including several co-workers at Henderson, Franklin, Starnes & Holt. Though Puopolo’s home was not flooded, her parents suffered a significant amount of loss at their Bonita Springs home, including the loss of all Puopolo’s childhood photos. 

“A lot of people lost everything,” she says. “There were people in my law firm who were struggling with paying rent, having to rent out another place because their home had damage. So we [at LCBAF] created the Hurricane Ian Legal Community Recovery Fund.” She worked with a committee on pursuing grants, directing funds and collecting more dollars to help.

Puopolo has become a master fundraiser. Her projects include serving a decade as chair of the foundation’s annual golf tournament, during which more than $250,000 was collected for local charities, mostly focused on youth, ranging from the Boys & Girls Club to the Guardian ad Litem Foundation-20th Judicial Circuit (now A.N.A.’s Friends). She also served as vice president for the latter.

“I grew up in this area, and I feel like it gave a lot to me, with the teachers and the mentors that I had, and I just want to give back,” she says. “I feel very fortunate to have the job that I do, and I want to do what I can to make it a better place.”

The Great Outdoors

Despite organizing an annual golf tournament—and being married to a golf pro—Puopolo is not much of a golfer. She prefers long-distance running, and participates in half-marathons. And her “favorite thing to do on Earth” is hike in national parks. Puopolo has visited half of them in the U.S., and hopes to hit them all. 

Her favorite? “That’s such a hard question, but if I had to pick one, I’d say Glacier National Park,” she decides. “So far.”

And looking far into the future, when she retires from the law? She’d still like to spend her time helping people—as a park volunteer.