City Bar Fund Elects New Chair and Board Members, and Debuts New Tagline: Great Lawyers 4 Good
New York, October 31, 2019 – The City Bar Fund, the non-profit arm of the New York City Bar Association, has elected David F. Levine to serve as Chair of the Board of Directors. Mr. Levine is the General Counsel at Bloomberg LP and has been a champion of the City Bar Fund’s mission to advance social justice through his active involvement in the Fund’s pro bono and diversity pipeline programs.
The City Bar Executive Committee has elected the following members to the City Bar Fund Board of Directors, Class of 2022: James J. Benjamin, Jr., Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld LLP; Shaila Rahman Diwan, Orrick Herrington & Sutcliffe LLP; and Laura S. Franco, CBS Corporation. View the complete list of the officers and members of the City Bar Fund Board of Directors here.
The City Bar Fund mobilizes New York City lawyers across four programs – the City Bar Justice Center, the Cyrus R. Vance Center for International Justice, the Office for Diversity and Inclusion, and the Lawyer Assistance Program – to benefit the public and the legal profession. The Fund is launching the tagline “Great Lawyers 4 Good” to capture the unifying vision of these programs of channeling the power of volunteering into positive impact.
Great lawyers 4 providing legal assistance to NYC’s underserved communities. The City Bar Justice Center focuses on social justice serving 26,000 low-income and disadvantaged New Yorkers each year through legal representation, community outreach and education. It leverages the time and skill sets of over 1,000 volunteer attorneys annually to assist disabled veterans, the elderly, homeless families, asylum seekers and other vulnerable groups.
Great lawyers 4 collaborating across borders to strengthen fundamental rights and the rule of law. The Cyrus R. Vance Center for International Justice provides pro bono legal representation to human rights, environmental and investigative journalism NGOs around the world, co-counseling with more than 170 law firms. It promotes pro bono practice in Africa and Latin America, coordinating the Pro Bono Network of the Americas, including providing U.S. immigration lawyers with co-counsels in Central America and beyond to aid separated families in the U.S. It pursues diversity for women lawyers in Latin America and selects African lawyers to train at U.S. law firms.
Great lawyers 4 ensuring NYC’s legal community is diverse and accessible to all. The Office for Diversity and Inclusion leads efforts to strengthen the diversity pipeline into the legal profession. The Office for Diversity and Inclusion also administers robust programming for high school, college, law students and lawyers. The Office’s recent collaborations with outside stakeholders include its partnership with CareerReadyNYC, the City’s initiative to support young New Yorkers with the education and work experience necessary for career success and economic security. CareerReadyNYC will support the City Bar’s Thurgood Marshall Summer Law Internship Program, which places New York City public high school students in internships at law firms, corporations, nonprofits and government agencies.
Great lawyers 4 keeping the city’s legal professionals healthy to better serve others. The Lawyer Assistance Program (LAP) is a beneficiary of increased Office of Court Administration funding, which will enable LAP to enhance its programing for lawyers, judges, law students and legal professionals facing issues of mental health, substance use and professional and personal challenges. LAP educates law firms, the judiciary, law schools and other legal institutions in the public and private sectors about the high rates of mental health and substance use problems among lawyers in order to combat the harmful stigma that so often impedes recovery. LAP is helping these institutions address issues of lawyer well-being as part of its mission to realize a fully supportive, strong and healthy legal community.
To learn more about the City Bar Fund and how to support its philanthropic programs, please contact Christina Overton, Development and Communications Manager, City Bar Fund, or view its annual reports.
About the Association
The mission of the New York City Bar Association, which was founded in 1870 and has 24,000 members, is to equip and mobilize the legal profession to practice with excellence, promote reform of the law, and uphold the rule of law and access to justice in support of a fair society and the public interest in our community, our nation, and throughout the world. www.nycbar.org
