Congratulations To LeGaL On A Most Fantastic Fête
And congrats to LeGal on another successful year!
Last Thursday, I enjoyed the privilege and pleasure of attending the annual dinner of LeGal, also known as the LGBT Bar Association of Greater New York. The festivities took place at Capitale here in New York, and the vibe was even more celebratory than last year — perhaps because, if all goes well, the U.S. Supreme Court might bring marriage equality to the entire nation later this year.
This year I was seated at the table of my former firm, Wachtell Lipton, a top sponsor of the 2015 dinner. This gave me the chance to catch up with an old friend from law school and current WLRK partner, David Lam. (When we worked together at the firm, we’d often get each other’s mail or be confused for one another, due to the closeness of our names and various demographic similarities.)
The program began with welcoming remarks from Professor Meredith Miller, current president of LeGal. She noted that more than 50 courts have ruled in favor of the freedom to marry since last year’s dinner — and that this couldn’t have happened without the hard work of the heroes of the marriage-equality movement, many of them in attendance at the dinner that night. She also described the recent work of LeGal — a judicial nominations committee that has screened over 20 candidates for judgeships, the launching of four pro bono walk-in clinics, the hiring of Brett Figlewski, LeGal’s first legal director — and played the role of what she described as the rabbi on the high holidays: “Don’t just join us tonight, but stay involved the entire year!”
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Next up, executive director Matthew Skinner took the stage to thank the supporters of LeGal — “thanks to you, we’ve finished the Downton Abbey-inspired office redecoration!” — and to thank outgoing president Karl Riehl for his service.
Skinner then presented the first of LeGal’s three Community Vision Awards to HBO, which he commended for its coverage of issues important to the LGBT community over the years. Dennis Williams, vice president of corporate social responsibility for HBO, accepted the award.
Williams told the story of a young gay lawyer who was told by a senior colleague years ago that he had a promising legal career ahead of him as long as he could keep his personal life a secret. This young lawyer couldn’t do that, viewing such secrecy as a disservice to his friends who were suffering from AIDS at the time. So Michael Lombardo left that employer and moved in-house to HBO, where he rose up through the ranks to become president of programming. Williams thanked Lombardo for helping to make HBO “a place where every story makes a difference.”
McDermott Will & Emery partner Lisa Linsky — who just filed a great, historically informed amicus brief in the Supreme Court marriage cases, by the way — presented the second Community Vision Award to her good friend Carmelyn P. Malalis, the new chair of the New York City Commission on Human Rights. Linsky discharged her duties with style, singing and dancing a bit as she compared Malalis to the indomitable Mama Rose of “Gypsy” (the photo below doesn’t do Linsky justice).
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Linsky praised Malalis for her service as chair of the New York City Bar Association’s Committee on LGBT Rights — noting that Malalis had big shoes to fill, following in the footsteps of the superb Allen Drexel — and commended Malalis for her integrity, authenticity, and devotion to underserved communities.
Carmelyn Malalis (my fellow Filipino American) accepted the award in a moving speech. She thanked her parents, Roman Catholics and Filipino immigrants, who traveled down a long and challenging road in coming to embrace Malalis and her family (Malalis’s wife, who is of Ethiopian ancestry, and their two daughters).
The final Community Vision Award was presented by former New York City Council Speaker Christine Quinn — not a lawyer, but married to one (Kim Catullo of Gibbons) — to Alphonso David, the prominent civil-rights lawyer who in April will become chief counsel to Governor Andrew Cuomo. Quinn praised David, the first African-American man and first openly gay man to serve as chief counsel, for the compassion and care he brings to public service (and also wondered how he works as hard as he does and still finds time to hit the gym).
Alphonso David said he had planned to write a speech but didn’t have the time — which was just as well, because “it’s not about me, it’s about the work.” He read a powerful email about a longtime couple who got married in a hospice as one of them was living out his final days. He marveled at the pace of social change, noting that not too long ago, “I couldn’t marry my partner and was even considered a criminal. That’s all changed now.”
The evening closed with a celebration of marriage equality. Evan Wolfson, the founder and president of Freedom to Marry, explained that after many years of hard work, “America is now ready for the freedom to marry.” He introduced April DeBoer and Jayne Rowse, the petitioners in DeBoer v. Snyder, one of the marriage cases now before the Supreme Court, and shared their compelling story.
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DeBoer and Rowse, both nurses, have lived together for more than ten years. They are mothers to four children and foster mothers to a fifth, alternating their nursing shifts so that one of them is always available to take care of their kids. But because of discrimination, each of their children has only one legally recognized parent. They decided to challenge Michigan’s adoption law out of concern for their children and a fear of what might happen to the children if either DeBoer or Rowse were to pass away. After Judge Bernard A. Friedman suggested that they broaden their case to challenge not just Michigan’s adoption law but its marriage law as well, they amended their complaint.
Fittingly enough, the last word belonged to April DeBoer and Jayne Rowse (who were joined at the podium by one of their lawyers, Carole Stanyar). DeBoer explained that the litigation that she and Rowse initiated was not about them, “but about our kids and protecting our kids.” They initially focused their lawsuit on challenging Michigan’s adoption law and only later amended it to include the state’s same-sex marriage ban. Going before the U.S. Supreme Court to argue for a nationwide right to same-sex marriage, DeBoer explained, was “not what we signed up for — but, well, okay!”
Will it all turn out okay? All eyes are on the Supreme Court (and especially Justice Anthony M. Kennedy). Here’s hoping that there’s even more to celebrate at next year’s LeGal Annual Dinner.
LeGaL Foundation Annual Dinner [LGBT Bar Association of Greater New York]
