The 2020 Judge Edward Weinfeld Award recipient was Judge Jonathan Lippman ’68, former chief judge of New York as well as the New York Court of Appeals. Since his retirement from the bench in 2015, Lippman has served as of counsel in the New York office of Latham & Watkins and is a member of the firm’s litigation and trial department.
Established in memory of Judge Edward Weinfeld 1921, LLM 1924, the Weinfeld Award recognizes a Law School graduate who has made lasting contributions to the legal profession and the Law School community.
During Lippman’s seven years on the Court of Appeals, he expanded legal services for low-income New Yorkers and advocated for court reform, adopting rules to protect consumers against creditors and requiring greater scrutiny of bail decisions. As the state’s chief judge, Lippman focused on initiatives to increase access to justice, creating the Task Force to Expand Access to Civil Legal Services in New York, increasing the mandatory pro bono requirements for admission to the bar, and establishing the Pro Bono Scholars Program, which allows 1L law students to devote their final semester of law school to full-time pro bono work, among other initiatives.
Posted September 11, 2020