Against the violet-lit backdrop of the Temple of Dendur, NYU Law alumni, faculty, and others from the Law School community congregated at the Metropolitan Museum of Art on March 31 for the conviviality of the Weinfeld Gala. The annual event recognizes members of the Weinfeld Program, the alumni and friends of the Law School who have made exceptional commitments to the Annual Fund, which supports student scholarships, faculty research, clinics, and more.
Welcoming attendees, David Tanner ’84, chair of NYU Law’s Board of Trustees, spoke to the historical moment: “Developments over the last few months have raised profound questions about how our government functions and about the rule of law itself…. More than ever, your engagement and your generosity as members of the Weinfeld Program empower our law school to respond to the needs of the moment and to exhibit the leadership that is so desperately needed.”
Dean Troy McKenzie ’00 took the lectern to discuss the legacy of Judge Edward Weinfeld (1921), LLM 1924, a legendary jurist who served on the US District Court for the Southern District of New York for almost four decades. McKenzie drew a parallel with present-day strains on the rule of law, describing how Weinfeld, early in his career, dismissed an indictment against a witness who had refused to testify before Senator Joseph McCarthy’s subcommittee. “It was a moment in American history. Such an ordinary thing—a judge applying the law and acting accordingly—carried enormous potential consequences.”
Anthony Welters ’77, chair emeritus of the Board of Trustees, introduced NYU Law Life Trustee Kathryn Cassell Chenault ’80, the recipient of this year’s Weinfeld Award. The honor recognizes distinguished alumni who show exceptional dedication to the Law School. Welters spoke of Chenault’s commitment to “making it possible for young people to have opportunities that they would never have had, and she does it quietly.” Among her many acts of support, Chenault created, along with her husband, the Kenneth and Kathryn Chenault Scholarship within the AnBryce Program.
Accepting the award, Chenault recalled the values with which she had been raised. “I come from a family that believes deeply in the power of education,” she said, “and that has been fortunate enough and worked hard enough to access it, even before great educational opportunities were readily available to Black people in this country.”
Brown v. Board of Education, which marked its first anniversary the month that Chenault was born, shaped her educational path, she said, “creating possibilities that previous generations could only imagine.” Her mother told her that legal training was something no one could take away, and that it “provided the tools to navigate a world that wasn’t always welcoming and the power to advocate for ourselves and for others.” At NYU Law, Chenault loved torts and civil procedure “because of the order they brought to chaos, and for the promise they embodied that society can be governed by reason, not just by power.”
Chenault’s first job out of law school, as an associate at Donovan, Leisure, Newton & Irvine in New York, did not fulfill her calling, she said. In 1984, she found a sense of purpose when she joined the United Negro College Fund, where she eventually became vice president of national, corporate, and foundation support programs. This new direction did not mean that Chenault had abandoned her legal education, she added. “The analytical skills, the ability to see systems and structures, the commitment to reasoned argument: these gifts from my NYU education have informed my work for decades,” said Chenault.
Chenault explained that for her, success is collective. “I believe it's not enough to excel individually,” she said. “True success means creating ladders of opportunity for others to climb.” The “legacy of purpose and perseverance” her family passed down led her to NYU Law, said Chenault, and “gave [her] the opportunity to learn that process matters, that details illuminate truth, that justice requires both passion and precision.”
In that spirit, Chenault accepted the Weinfeld Award, and along with it, she said, “the essential, unending work of opening doors, removing barriers, and believing fiercely in human possibility. That is what the law at its best is about: the radical notion that tomorrow need not be simply yesterday; that change, while never easy, is always possible; and that each one of us can make a difference when we have the opportunity to learn how to wield our power.”
Photos from the 2025 Weinfeld Gala:
Posted April 18, 2025