Cecilia Vonderheide
Community Spirit Award
Cecilia Serrano Vonderheide has proudly been affiliated with LSA since early 2012, eager to help the East Harlem community. She started as a volunteer in the Parenting and Child Development program, assisting early childhood professionals support families of children under three years of age with developmental delay risks. Later that year, Cecilia joined the Board of Directors where she has served as co-chair of the Development Committee, and member of the Executive, Finance, and Parent Committees. She currently chairs the Program Committee.
Cecilia is also a member of the Guggenheim Museum Education Committee, which supports the Museum’s enriching educational opportunities, has been President of her Cooperative apartment building, and has co-chaired The Dalton School’s Annual Fund and two of her Harvard Business School class reunion fundraising participation campaigns. Prior to retiring, Cecilia was Vice President at The Bank of New York’s Latin America Division. She holds a B.S. degree in Industrial Engineering from Texas A&M University and a Master in Business Administration degree from Harvard University. She is passionate about family, friends, tennis, theater, and literature.
Proskauer Rose LLP
Corporate Spirit Award
Proskauer Rose LLP is a global law firm of 725+ lawyers with a long history of public service and an extensive pro bono docket that ranges from high-impact litigation and complex transactions for nonprofit organizations to direct representation of low-income individuals seeking equal access to justice. In 2018, after years of litigation, a Proskauer pro bono team led by Pro Bono Counsel Erin Meyer secured a federal district court’s approval of a landmark class action consent decree that requires the New York City Housing Authority to remediate mold and water damage in a timely and effective manner across thousands of buildings in which more than 400,000 low-income New Yorkers reside, many of whom suffer from asthma that is exacerbated by mold. Proskauer is proud to have collaborated with LSA Family Health Service in the fight for safe and healthy housing for children and families affected by asthma.
Erin Marie Meyer is the Pro Bono Counsel at Proskauer Rose LLP, where she connects the Firm’s lawyers to pro bono opportunities through a diverse network of legal services and nonprofit organizations. Prior to joining Proskauer, Erin was a litigation associate at an international law firm. Throughout her career, she has demonstrated a strong commitment to pro bono work, particularly in the areas of immigration, LGBTQ rights, and environmental justice. Erin also serves on the board of the Jim Collins Foundation, a nonprofit that funds gender-affirming surgeries for transgender people who need but cannot afford this medically necessary care.
Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan, LLP
Corporate Spirit Award
In memoriam to Steve Edwards (March 20, 1947 – April 8, 2020)
Lead Pro Bono Attorney fighting for a safe and healthy East Harlem
We are a 800-lawyer business litigation firm with offices in Los Angeles, New York, San Francisco, Silicon Valley, Chicago, Washington, D.C., Houston, Seattle, Boston, Salt Lake City, Tokyo, London, Mannheim, Hamburg, Paris, Hong Kong, Munich, Sydney, Brussels, Zurich, Shanghai, Perth and Stuttgart. We aggressively litigate a wide variety of business disputes for Fortune 500 companies as well as smaller companies. We do not simply “handle” cases for years before settling them on the courthouse steps. Our goal is to seize the initiative and resolve them quickly, because it is in our clients’ interests to do so. If a case cannot be resolved short of trial, we have the experienced trial lawyers who can try it. Our business is winning cases—and we do.
Steve Edwards was a litigator with Quinn Emanuel in New York. He focused on class actions, antitrust and securities cases, and complex civil litigation, including residential mortgage backed securities cases. He began his career at Cravath, Swaine & Moore and later formed his own firm, Davis, Weber & Edwards. That firm merged with Hogan & Hartson, which later merged with Lovells to form Hogan Lovells. Steve left Hogan Lovells at the end of 2015 to join Quinn. Steve was the former President of the Federal Bar Council and co-founder of the Inn of Court. He was also President of the Inn of Court and sat on the Inn Executive Committee. In 2008, Steve received the Federal Bar Council’s Whitney North Seymour Award for outstanding public service by a private practitioner, and in 2010 he received the William T. Lifland Award from the New York State Bar’s Antitrust Section, of which he was Chair in 2006. Steve also sat on the Advisory Committee for Civil Rules of the Eastern District and the Joint Committee of Civil Rules of the Eastern and Southern Districts. Steve was a graduate of the University of Iowa, where he was a member of the Iowa Writer’s Workshop, and the University of Virginia School of Law, where he was Notes and Decisions Editor of the Law Review, Order of the Coif and a member of the Raven Society. Steve served on the boards of Nazareth Housing (housing and social services for the homeless), where he was President for 20 years; the Jazz Foundation of America, where he was on the Executive Committee; WBGO (Newark Public Radio), where he was Chair of the Strategic Planning Committee; and Music on the Inside. Until September 2018, he was also on the board of the National Center for Law and Economic Justice (“NCLEJ”), where he was Treasurer for 17 years. In 2017. Steve was honored for his pro bono activities by the Pro Bono Partnership, and in June of last year he was honored by the NCLEJ for his work as lead counsel in a pro bono class action against the New York City Housing Authority for failing to remediate mold. Steve has written a rock opera, “There’s Something Afoot,” as well as a play entitled “The Trial of Harry S Truman.” Steve was also a member of the Iowa Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. He also wrote frequently for the Federal Bar Council Quarterly, which he founded in 1992.