JOIN US FOR THE
PRO BONO PARTNERSHIP
25th ANNIVERSARY GALA
Thursday, September 22
6:30 PM Cocktails | 7:30 PM Dinner
Cipriani 42nd Street, New York City
Celebrating Stronger Nonprofits & Communities
With the RETURN of the Pro Bono Partnership Gala!
For 25 years the Partnership has been providing free legal help to nonprofits throughout Connecticut, New Jersey, and New York. Please join us for a celebration honoring those who have made this milestone possible!
We are excited to welcome you back to the year’s most magical celebration of pro bono at Cipriani Midtown on September 22. In addition to seeing friends and colleagues in person, we will hear from nonprofits that have been the beneficiaries of this important work, and how legal assistance—always a necessity—became an integral part of continuing to provide critical services during the pandemic.
Tickets, tables, and sponsorships are available now, and many opportunities have limited availability. To reserve your seat and help us honor our Pro Bono Champions and the Partnership’s work, secure your spot today!
25th Anniversary
Pro Bono Champions
Law Firm Honoree
Eric J. Friedman
Executive Partner
Skadden Arps Slate Meagher & Flom LLP
Corporate Honoree
IBM Corporation
Law Department
Jonathan Mothner
Executive Vice President, General Counsel & Secretary
Synchrony Financial
Board Chair, Pro Bono Partnership
Gala Host:
Football, Hockey, and Theater Fans:
Make Some Noise at the Silent Auction!
Shop for a great cause! Something for sports fans and theater lovers…whether for yourself or as a gift for someone special, these items will surely be met with applause!
Autographed memorabilia from:
Saquon Barkley
Daniel Jones
Jerome Bettis
P.K. Subban
Damon Severson
Nico Hischier
Broadway enthusiasts:
Two orchestra tickets to SIX The Musical!
Meet Our Supporters
Meet Our Supporters
Chairman
Jonathan Mothner
Executive Vice President, General Counsel and Secretary
Synchrony Financial
Vice Chairman
Peter A. Gutermann
Senior Vice President, General Counsel and Secretary (Ret.)
Barnes Group, Inc.
Vice Chairman
John M. Liftin
Fried, Frank, Harris, Shriver & Jacobson LLP
(Formerly General Counsel and Managing Director, D. E. Shaw & Co., L.P.)
President
John L. Sander
Jackson Lewis P.C.
(Formerly Vice President & Associate General Counsel, Merck & Co., Inc.)
Secretary
Anahaita N. Kotval
Chief Executive Officer
Lifting Up Westchester
(Formerly General Counsel, RBS Securities)
Treasurer
Ann M. Kappler
Executive Vice President and General Counsel
Prudential Financial, Inc.
Sylvia A. Ayler
Director, Legal
Intellectual Property Group
Merck & Co., Inc.
Evan Charkes
Managing Director and Associate General Counsel
Global Wealth & Investment Management
Bank of America
Eric I Cohen
Executive Vice President & Corporate Secretary (General Counsel)
Infinite Reality, Inc.
Una A. Dean
VP, Assistant General Counsel, Investigations
IBM
David Flavell
Executive Vice President, General Counsel and Corporate Secretary
PepsiCo
John P. Frantz
Senior Vice President & General Counsel
Verizon Business Group
Daniel J. Goldstein
Executive Vice President, Chief Legal Officer and Corporate Secretary
Pitney Bowes
Rady Johnson
Executive Vice President, Chief Compliance and Risk Officer
Pfizer, Inc
Cathy Lueders
Assistant General Counsel, SVP – US Markets
Mastercard
Greg Nehro
General Counsel – Americas
BNY Mellon
Alicia Perrault
Vice President and General Counsel
Pratt & Whitney
Scott Posner
Senior Vice President, General Counsel and Secretary
Terex Corporation
Edward J. Sebold
General Counsel
Kyndryl
Richard H. Walker
King & Spalding, LLP
(Formerly Vice Chairman, Deutsche Bank AG)
David Yawman
Senior Advisor
BarkerGilmore LLC
Director Emeritus
Benjamin W. Heineman Jr.
Distinguished Senior Fellow
Program on the Legal Profession
Harvard Law School
PRESENTING SPONSOR
LEAD SPONSORS
BENEFACTORS
PATRONS
PARTNERS
Bartlit Beck LLP
Brown Brothers Harriman & Co.
Carpenter Lipps & Leland LLP
Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton LLP
Crowell & Moring LLP
Dechert LLP
Emmet, Marvin & Martin, LLP
Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer US LLP
Fried, Frank, Harris, Shriver & Jacobson LLP
Hogan Lovells US LLP
Jones Day
King & Spalding, LLP
Lowenstein Sandler LLP
McCarter & English LLP
Pitney Bowes
Strook & Strook & Lavan LLP
Verizon
Williams & Connolly LLP
Winston & Strawn LLP
ADVOCATES
Africare
Baker Botts LLP
Baker McKenzie
Bank of America
Berry Appleman & Leiden LLP
Chubb
Debevoise & Plimpton LLP
DLA Piper LLP
Diane and Rady Johnson
Kirkland & Ellis LLP
Eve Konstan and Jonathan Mothner
Cathy Lueders
Mintz
Neal Gerber Eisenberg
Proskauer
Robinson & Cole LLP
Sidley Austin LLP
Simpson Thacher & Bartlett LLP
Stradley Ronon Stevens & Young, LLP
Venable LLP
ASSOCIATES
Alston & Bird LLP
Bruce and Veronica Bennett
Blank Rome LLP
Bryan Cave Leighton Paisner LLP
Butler Snow LLP
Davis Wright Tremaine LLP
Day Pitney LLP
Brian and Melissa DuPerre
Fragomen, Del Rey, Bernsen & Loewy LLP
Goldman Ismail Tomaselli Brennan & Baum LLP
Ann Kappler and Mark Herlihy
Anahaita N. Kotval and Zubeen Shroff
Greg and Diana Nehro
Gwen and Del Renigar
Grace and John Sander
Seyfarth Shaw LLP
Shook, Hardy & Bacon LLP
Steptoe & Johnson, LLP
Terex Corporation
CONTRIBUTORS
Barnes & Thornburg LLP
Carmody Torrance Sandak & Hennessey LLP
Gail and Eric Cohen
Dentons US LLP
Dorsey & Whitney LLP
Dun & Bradstreet
Faegre Drinker Biddle & Reath, LLP
Figari and Davenport LLP
David and Effe Flavell
Katherine Lipton and Alex Lipman
Riley Safer Holmes & Cancila LLP
Robins Kaplan LLP
Ed and Diane Sebold
Shearman & Sterling LLP
Sterne, Kessler, Goldstein & Fox
Weinberg Wheeler Hudgins Gunn & Dial, LLC
FRIENDS
Sylvia Ayler
Beveridge & Diamond PC
Mary Jane Brock
Cantor Colburn LLP
Catherine V. Curry
Epstein Becker & Green, P.C.
Evan Charkes and Juli Steadman
Patricia Ferrari and Andrew Janszky
John P. Frantz
Richard Grove
Gunster
Cynthia and Peter Gutermann
Leelee Smith Klein
Candace and Justin Kronholm
Sarah Monaghan
New Jersey Devils
Matthew Nimetz
Edward Pardoe
Paul Hastings LLP
Scott Posner
Prudential Financial, Inc.
Laura Sklar and Daniel J. Goldstein
Geoffrey Smith
TÖST Beverages
Thompson Hine LLP
Uría Menéndez
As of September 29, 2021
VICE CHAIRS
Sylvia A. Ayler
Merck & Co., Inc.
Neil Barr
Davis Polk & Wardwell LLP
Joshua R. Cammaker
Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz
Brian DuPerre
UnitedHealth Group
Rady Johnson
Pfizer Inc
Rachel Lieberman
Synchrony Financial
Michael Nonaka
Covington & Burling LLP
Steering Committee
Brian Boyle
O’Melveny & Myers, LLP
Ting S. Chen
Cravath, Swaine & Moore LLP
David Flavell
PepsiCo
Matthew Ingber
Mayer Brown LLP
Frank R. Jimenez
Raytheon Technologies
Constantine Karides
Reed Smith LLP
Candace A. Kronholm
Pratt & Whitney,
a Raytheon Technologies Company
Kevin G. Lauri
Jackson Lewis P.C.
Cathy Lueders
Mastercard
Jami Wintz McKeon
Morgan, Lewis & Bockius LLP
Gregory Nehro
BNY Mellon
Raymond N. Nimrod
Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan, LLP
Joseph L. Noga
Jenner & Block LLP
Edward J. Sebold
IBM Corporation
Geoffrey Sigler
Gibson Dunn & Crutcher LLP
Drew Tulumello
Weil, Gotshal & Manges LLP
Steven J. Williams
Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison LLP
GALA PLANNING COMMITTEE
Eric Cohen
Infinite Reality, Inc.
Una Dean
IBM Corporation
Daniel J. Goldstein
Pitney Bowes
Rady Johnson
Pfizer
Ann Kappler
Prudential Financial, Inc.
Jonathan Mothner
Synchrony Financial
Please check back soon, we are adding new info as the celebration nears!
Volunteers of the Year
For the Partnership’s silver anniversary, we are thrilled to build on our Volunteers of the Year (VOTY) award to honor our VOTY25! Celebrating the dedication and commitment of one amazing volunteer (or volunteer team) from each of our program areas, the VOTY25 have collectively addressed hundreds of nonprofit legal matters that have had a tremendous positive impact on our communities.
Congratulations VOTY25 honorees:
Mark Benevenia, Esq. & Vance G. Camisa, Esq.
Merck Legal Department
Susan M. Corcoran, Esq.
Jackson Lewis P.C.
George Nichols, Esq.
The Ferguson Library (Retired)
With Your Support,
Pro Bono Partnership
Can Continue to
Strengthen Nonprofits!
Make a Donation in Their Honor
Did you know that you can make a donation to
Pro Bono Partnership in honor of one of our
Pro Bono Champions, VOTY25, or someone else
deserving in your life? Thank you for supporting
the Partnership’s mission!
EXPLORE OUR WORK
Jonathan Mothner is Executive Vice President, General Counsel and Secretary of Synchrony Financial (NYSE: SYF), a premiere consumer financial services company with more than $140 billion in sales financed and over 80 million active accounts. Synchrony Financial spun off from GE Capital in 2014. Prior to 2014, Mr. Mothner served in various legal roles at GE Capital including General Counsel for GE Capital’s North American retail finance business, Chief Litigation Counsel and Chief Compliance Officer for GE Capital’s global consumer finance business and Chief Litigation Counsel for GE Commercial Finance. Prior to joining GE Capital, Mr. Mothner served as an Assistant US Attorney in the Eastern District of New York. Prior to joining the government, Mr. Mothner was an associate at Cleary, Gottlieb, Steen & Hamilton in New York and Tokyo. Mr. Mothner serves on the Board of Directors of Synchrony Bank, the Synchrony Foundation and the Pro Bono Partnership and is a member of the American Law Institute. He received a B.A. in Economics from Hobart College and a J.D. from New York University School of Law. He and his wife, Eve Konstan, the General Counsel of Spotify, live in Greenwich CT.
Ari Melber, an Emmy Award-winning journalist, writer, and attorney, is the host of “The Beat with Ari Melber” on MSNBC. We are honored to have Mr. Melber hosting the Gala again this year!