News & Events

 

The Jazz for Justice Benefit is one of the premier legal events in New York City, raising significant unrestricted funds that enable us to be responsive to the needs of the vulnerable communities we serve. At each year's benefit, we present awards to leaders in the legal and business community who are staunch supporters of our mission to fight poverty and seek racial, social and economic justice for the most vulnerable in our society. Past honorees include Peter Beshar of Marsh & McLennan, Stacey Friedman of JPMorgan Chase, Debo Adegbile of WilmerHale, Joseph Wayland of Chubb, Sandra Leung of Bristol-Myers Squibb, Michael Fricklas of Viacom, and Brackett Denniston of GE.

 

Please click here to view photos from last year's event.

 

David F. Levine is the General Counsel of Bloomberg L.P. where he oversees the global legal and compliance functions. David is also the Executive Sponsor for Bloomberg's Black Professional Community. David is Chair of the Board of Directors of the New York City Bar Association's City Bar Fund, and serves on the Board of Counselors of Equal Justice Works, and Union College's President's Council. David is also a Founding General Counsel and serves on the Advisory Board of the Move the Needle Fund. Prior to joining Bloomberg, David was a partner in the Corporate and Financial Services department of Willkie Farr & Gallagher LLP, where he counseled clients on a broad range of media and technology-driven transactions. David holds a J.D. from the New York University School of Law, an M.Sc. from the London School of Economics, and B.A. from Union College.

James J. Sandman is President Emeritus of the Legal Services Corporation (LSC), the United States’ largest funder of civil legal aid programs for low-income people. He served as President of LSC from 2011 to February of 2020. LSC, with a current appropriation from Congress of $440 million, provides financial support to 132 independent legal aid programs with more than 850 offices serving every state and the U.S. territories. Legal Services NYC receives LSC’s largest grant, $13.3 million in 2020.

Jim practiced with Arnold & Porter for 30 years and served as the firm’s Managing Partner for a decade. He is a past President of the 100,000-member District of Columbia Bar and a former General Counsel of the District of Columbia Public Schools.

Jim is a summa cum laude graduate of Boston College, where he was elected to Phi Beta Kappa, and a cum laude graduate of the University of Pennsylvania Law School, where he served as Executive Editor of the Law Review and was elected to the Order of the Coif. He began his legal career as a law clerk to Judge Max Rosenn of the United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit.

Arnold & Porter

Compass Lexecon

Davis Polk & Wardwell LLP

Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher LLP

Jenner & Block LLP

Kaplan Hecker & Fink LLP

Kramer Levin Naftalis & Frankel LLP

Latham & Watkins LLP

The Levine Family

Merck & Co.

Milbank LLP

Morgan, Lewis & Bockius LLP

Morrison & Foester LLP and The Morrison & Foerster Foundation

Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison LLP

Pfizer Inc

Simpson Thacher & Bartlett LLP

Weil, Gotshal & Manges LLP

Barclays

Epstein Becker Green

Sullivan & Cromwell LLP

USI Insurance Services

Cornerstone Research

The D. E. Shaw Group

Goldman Sachs & Co. LLC

Goodwin Procter LLP

Jones Day

Kirkland & Ellis LLP

Popular Bank

Proskauer Rose LLP

Ropes & Gray LLP

Schulte Roth & Zabel LLP

Wollmuth Maher & Deutsche LLP

Michael Young and Debra Raskin

Bracewell LLP

Fenwick & West LLP

Marcum LLP

Morgan Stanley

O'Melveny & Myers LLP

AIG

Davis Wright Tremaine LLP

Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati Foundation