Last night, the VOLS community gathered at the beautiful Tribeca Rooftop for VOLS New York, Together 2023 Gala: Celebrating Pro Bono Stories. Thank you to all who joined us!
Together, we raised critical funds for VOLS’ free legal services for low-income New Yorkers. Thank you to our generous sponsors, Board of Directors, Pro Bono Advocates Council, and to our honorees, Davis Polk & Wardwell LLP and Societe Generale Americas, for their outstanding pro bono leadership. We are extremely grateful as well to Preet Bharara, Partner, WilmerHale, and Former U.S. Attorney for the SDNY, and Kate Shaw, Professor of Law, Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law and Co-host, Strict Scrutiny podcast, for engaging us in an insightful conversation about the role of pro bono. If you were unable to attend, please consider watching our featured video and making your impact today with a donation to VOLS.
“The VOLS promise – over four decades – is to leave those we serve able to achieve a better life and ultimately to leave New York a better place”
Karen Artz Ash, Chair, Board of Directors VOLS New York, Together 2023 Gala
As VOLS approaches our 40th year, we continue to reflect on the partnerships and collaborations that strengthen our work, and the people who make them possible. We invite you to subscribe to our newsletter, if you have not already, for additional highlights from last night’s program and future opportunities to get involved with our work.
Best,
Abja
Abja Midha
Executive Director
Volunteers of Legal Service
In Memoriam
VOLS was saddened to learn about the passing of Maria Torres Bird, a client of our Senior Law Project La Extension Comunitaria para Adultos Mayores initiative who shared her experiences drafting essential planning documents with the VOLS community last spring. We were lucky to work with Maria and grateful she shared her story with us. We dedicate our Gala video to her now.
VOLS 2023 Gala Sponsors
VISIONARY
CHAMPION
PARTNER
ADVOCATE
*List as of 4/11/2023
HONORING
Accepted By
JAMES H.R. WINDELS
Director, Volunteers of Legal Service
Jim has experience in a wide variety of federal and state court commercial litigation matters and arbitrations, regulatory enforcement proceedings and internal investigations. He represents public and privately held corporations, financial institutions, hedge funds, accounting firms, and corporate directors and officers.
Jim has argued appeals in the Second, Seventh and Ninth Circuits and appellate courts in New York and California. He has argued numerous motions in federal and state courts in New York, New Jersey, Massachusetts, California, Florida, Louisiana, Missouri, Minnesota and Wisconsin. He has represented clients in investigations by the SEC, DOJ, FINRA, the Manhattan District Attorney, the FederalReserve Bank, NYDFS, the CFTC, PCAOB, and regulators in Japan, the United Kingdom and Canada.
In his pro bono practice, Jim is a member of the board, and a former chairman, of both Brooklyn Legal Services Corporation A and Volunteers of Legal Service.
DARA L. SHEINFELD
Counsel, Head of Pro Bono Litigation
As Counsel and Head of Pro Bono Litigation, Dara oversees a wide variety of pro bono litigation initiatives, including family court litigation, post-conviction relief matters, and federal Hague actions–with a personal focus on representing survivors of domestic violence. Through this work, she helps attorneys at Davis Polk develop and strengthen trial and client interview skills.
Dara previously worked at Sanctuary for Families, litigating family law matters on behalf of victims of domestic violence, and managing and directing two family law offices in Family Justice Centers in the Bronx and Manhattan. She supervised many attorneys in highly contested family court matters, including trials, and collaborated with various nonprofit organizations and legal services agencies, helping underserved communities.
Earlier, Dara was a litigation associate at Davis Polk. During that time, she gained significant experience litigating pro bono family court matters, and supervised associates on similar cases.
Accepted By
LAURA SCHISGALL
General Counsel
Laura Schisgall is General Counsel at Société Générale Americas in New York City. In this role, she is responsible for managing the legal teams in New York, Canada and Brazil and serves on the SG Americas Executive Committee. Laura commenced work at SG in 2008 and has been General Counsel since 2012.
Prior to being appointed as General Counsel, Laura managed the legal team that covered the derivatives, structured products and sales and trading businesses at SG. Before joining SG, Laura was General Counsel of the New York legal department at ABN AMRO, where she spent seven years in a variety of roles, all within the investment banking business. Prior to her time at ABN AMRO, Laura was in the Legal Department of Chase Bank, where she worked mainly on equity derivatives transactions. Laura commenced her legal practice at the law firm of Debevoise & Plimpton, where she spent six years doing corporate legal work.
FEATURING
Partner, WilmerHale
Former U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York
Preet Bharara, Partner, WilmerHale, is a renowned and highly regarded lawyer who focuses on investigations and criminal litigation matters. Mr. Bharara is a former United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York (SDNY). Dubbed “one of the most consequential prosecutors in American history” by The New Yorker, Mr. Bharara led some of the most significant criminal and civil litigations brought in the SDNY on behalf of the United States and is widely recognized as one of the most effective and transformative US Attorneys to ever lead the SDNY.
Mr. Bharara is an author, a frequent public speaker, and a much-valued voice in the national dialogue. He is a distinguished Scholar-in-Residence at the New York University School of Law, and regularly speaks to corporations, legal associations and trade groups on ethics and compliance, culture and diversity issues. He wrote a New York Times best-seller titled Doing Justice: A Prosecutor’s Thoughts on Crime, Punishment and the Rule of Law, which provides an important overview of the way the US justice system works and why the rule of law is essential to society. Mr. Bharara also shares his perspectives as host of the “Stay Tuned with Preet” and “Café Insider” podcasts on the Vox Media Podcast Network.
IN CONVERSATION WITH
Professor of Law, Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law
Co-Host, Strict Scrutiny Podcast
Kate Shaw is a Professor of Law at the Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law, and a visiting Professor in Spring 2023 at the University of Pennsylvania Carey Law School. She has written extensively about the presidency, in addition to the law of democracy, the Supreme Court, and reproductive rights and justice. Her scholarly writing has appeared, among other places, in the Columbia Law Review, the Cornell Law Review, the Georgetown Law Journal, and the Northwestern University Law Review, and her popular writing has appeared in the New York Times, the Washington Post, Slate, Time, and the Atlantic. She is also a contributor with ABC News and co-hosts the Supreme Court podcast, Strict Scrutiny. Earlier in her career, she served as an Associate Counsel in the White House Counsel’s Office and clerked for Justice John Paul Stevens and Judge Richard Posner.