Former U.S. AG Loretta Lynch honored at City Bar Justice Center’s 20th Annual Gala (2025)

The City Bar Justice Center celebrated its 20th annual gala on Wednesday at the Bar Association building in Midtown. The “Building Bridges & Brighter Futures” gala was headlined by former Attorney General Loretta Lynch.

The City Bar Justice Center’s bread and butter is offering pro bono legal assistance to those in need. The Justice Center has helped tens of thousands of New Yorkers with a variety of legal needs since its inception. The Center’s Neighborhood Entrepreneur Law Project has connected over 18,000 economically disadvantaged entrepreneurs across New York City with attorneys who help with representation, filings and contracts.

Hundreds of attorneys and sponsors gathered at the gala to raise money for the Justice Center and hear Lynch give a speech.

Executive Director of the City Bar Justice Center Kurt Denk gave a short speech reflecting on the past two decades of the City Bar Justice’s work before introducing Lynch and awarding her the City Bar Justice Award.

“Legal assistance provided by the Justice Center’s incredible staff and pro bono volunteers truly changes lives,” Denk said, listing off services the Center has provided, including assisting veterans and seniors and helping people experiencing homelessness protect their belongings.

Lynch praised the pro bono attorneys present at Wednesday’s gala. Among them were attorneys from JPMorgan Chase and Sidley Austin LLP, who were listed as “underwriters” for the event.

“Thank you all for 20 years of pushing forward with no guarantees of success,” Lynch said. “Your belief in justice will carry us into the next 20 years and beyond.”

Lynch now works as a partner at Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison, a firm that wasrecently targeted by the Trump Administration. She took shots at the Trump Administration during her remarks, telling the audience, “Even as the din of self-interest and hypocrisy continues to emanate from Washington, it is the voices of … all of you that are overriding that sound and fury that signifies nothing and replacing it —replacing it with calls for change and replacing it with calls for action.”

Lynch previously served as the U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of New York, which is based in Downtown Brooklyn. In 2015, she was sworn in as the first Black woman to serve as the Attorney General.

JPMorgan Chase Assistant General Counsel Leslie Harris and Sidley Executive Committee Chair Mike Schmidtberger gave a few remarks as well, expressing their gratitude to the Center.