Vance Center Committee is Resilient

(Screenshot of some of the members participating)

The Vance Center Committee held its first all-online meeting, with record attendance and usually productive discussion of the organization’s and its partners’ programmatic and institutional responses to the pandemic. The staff reviewed pro bono and other initiatives to monitor and assess the legal consequences of global lockdown, and Committee members described their firms’ pro bono and CSR efforts.

The Committee consists of 40 members, including partners from 33 international law firms, as well as senior corporate counsel.  A special committee of the New York City Bar Association, it has a formal advisory role, but in practice provides the Vance Center with manifold support: members and their firms are the organization’s principal financial backers; many members help design and implement programs, such as the Women in the Profession Program and the Lawyers Council for Civil and Economic Rights in the Americas.

The Committee has risen to the challenge of the pandemic, helping to secure the Vance Center’s funding in difficult conditions and supporting pro bono projects whether focused on the effects of the pandemic or on other issues of human rights, the environment, and good governance. The Committee also concluded its strategic planning process, in cooperation with the bar association and the board of its 501(c)(3) affiliate, which is the Vance Center’s organizational home.