Guests Enjoying the celebration at Galerie Lelong

On a beautiful summer evening, Tuesday, July 22nd, over 50 guests, including pro bono lawyers, school administrators, social workers, doctors, hospital social workers, VOLS board members and staff celebrated the accomplishments of VOLS’ Children’s Projects at a wine and cheese reception at Galerie Lelong in Chelsea. In 2013, 266 lawyers and 66 legal assistants from 13 law firms provided 8,243 hours of pro bono legal assistance to 237 families through the project.

Guests heard from VOLS board member and former board chair, John Kiernan, who thanked everyone involved for their work on this project, and explained why it is so important and how it makes a difference. The evening brought together professionals from different disciplines who had the opportunity to share their experiences with others doing similar work.

John S. Kiernan, VOLS Board Member

A highlight of the evening was the presentation of the first VOLS Superhero Awards to Christopher Lee and Christopher Caputo, associates at Simpson Thacher who coordinate the firm’s monthly legal clinic work at the Bushwick Campus, four small New York City public high schools.

Christopher Caputo & Christopher Lee, Recipients of The Superhero Award

Chris Lee and Chris Caputo have coordinated 10 monthly legal clinics annually at the Bushwick Campus, for 4 and 2 years, respectively. They have done monthly outreach to all the key personnel at each of the four schools including principals, guidance, parent coordinators, and college advisors. They have coordinated the appointments on the clinic day, overseen the work at each clinic and made sure that any follow-up work was done. Chris and Chris have both attended parent teacher conference nights at the schools, and orientation sessions for ninth graders and their parents to make sure that everyone knows about the pro bono legal assistance Simpson Thacher provides though the clinic. Both Chris and Chris personally recruited other lawyers at Simpson to staff the monthly legal clinics. In short, they have worked tirelessly with VOLS to make Simpson Thacher’s Bushwick Campus legal clinic a success.

Chris and Chris will pass the baton to Danielle Kantor, Jonathan Nussbaum and Andrew Yong this fall. We’ll be sad to lose them, but we’re looking forward to working with the new team.

Congratulations, Chris and Chris!