Around the water cooler: Lifting weights for charity

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Daniel Cotter, vice president deputy general counsel at Argo Group U.S., Inc., is not your typical lawyer.

The typical lawyer cannot lift a weight comparable to a small car. But Cotter can.

For the past eight years, Cotter has participated in competitive power weightlifting.

Cotter started lifting weights as a hobby at age 13, when he would go to the gym with his dad. But he put the hobby on hold while studying at Monmouth College. After taking the suggestion of a colleague from college, Cotter started weightlifting again — this time competitively.

Cotter now competes, on average, twice a year, and can lift 1,500 pounds in a combined three lifts. When preparing for a competition, Cotter trains five days a week for an hour a day, and uses the weekends to rest.

Cotter became vice chair of the young lawyers division of the Chicago Bar Association in 2003. During that time, the young lawyers section was involved in WITS [Working In The Schools], a volunteer mentoring program.

Cotter said WITS “was always a difficult thing because a lot of lawyers don’t have the capacity to go off-site and tutor. And back then I had two young sons and wasn’t able to do it. I thought about it, and I was weightlifting anyways and could make a contribution to mentoring in that way.”

It was at this time that Cotter began using his competitive weightlifting to raise money for the Sun-Times Judge Marovitz Lawyers Lend-A-Hand to Youth Program, which was created by the CBA and the Chicago Bar Foundation.

It promotes one-on-one mentoring relationships, provides grants to one-on-one mentoring programs across the state, and recruits attorneys and judges to serve as mentors.

Cotter raises money each year through his competitive weightlifting to give to the Lend- A-Hand program. He sends e-mails to his friends and colleagues to remind them of the event, and they either pledge him a certain amount per pound that he lifts or give him a flat donation, Cotter said.

This year marks the sixth year that Cotter has raised money for Lend-A-Hand through competitive weightlifting, with an expected amount of around $26,000 to have been raised.

– Danielle Feinstein