CLC Hosts Inaugural Gala

November 24, 2025

Last week, The Children’s Law Center hosted its first-ever fundraising Gala!

CLC provides life-changing advocacy for young people entangled in the Family Court system. Fundamental aspects of young people’s lives are decided there every day.

Unfortunately, CLC cannot serve many of the children who need our help. Too many still slip through the cracks. As an organization, we are grateful for our critical government funding. But CLC’s presence in the public eye has been limited for decades, and so has our outreach.

A Turning Point

Last week’s Gala, the first in its nearly 30-year history, represents the beginning of a new chapter for CLC. More than 200 attendees filled the New York City Bar Association to learn about the unique challenges faced by children in Family Court and CLC’s mission to empower them.

The night was a major success. The evening’s attendees raised more than $50,000 in the room, bringing the Gala’s total raised amount to $400,000 and exceeding CLC’s initial fundraising goal by 60%!

We are so grateful for the outpouring of support that we witnessed last week, including from leading supporters Jenner & Block LLP, Greenberg Traurig LLP, Antonio Weiss, Volta Talent Strategies LLC, Hecker Fink LLP, and Proskauer Rose LLP. We also could not have done this without our Gala Committee members!

Thank you to all who attended, to those who could not attend but donated and to those who simply read our newsletter to stay up to date. It takes a village!

Pictures from the evening

Fighting Across Government, Courts and the Arts

CLC honored three outstanding individuals for their support of children’s access to justice. The awards were named after three women who were instrumental in CLC’s creation.

Honorees from left to right: Shawn Martinbrough, Carmen Beauchamp Ciparick, and Hon. Thomas P. DiNapoli.

The Honorable Thomas P. DiNapoli

We were thrilled to welcome NYC Comptroller Brad Lander as our special guest to present the award to NYS Comptroller Thomas P. DiNapoli, from Comptroller to Comptroller!

Comptroller DiNapoli received the 2025 Judge Carol Sherman Award for his work leveraging his office’s powers to improve outcomes for vulnerable children and families across the State.

Hon. Thomas P. DiNapoli is the 54th Comptroller of the State of New York

Carmen Beauchamp Ciparick

We were honored that the Honorable Rolando Acosta, former Presiding Justice of the Appellate Division, First Department, joined us to present the award to Judge Ciparick.

Judge Ciparick received the 2025 Judge Judith Kaye Award for her lifelong work protecting New York’s families and her work ensuring excellence in Family Court.

Judge Ciparick is the former Senior Associate Judge of the New York State Court of Appeals. She now works as Of Counsel at Greenberg Traurig, LLP.

Shawn Martinbrough

We were thrilled to present Mr. Martinbrough with the 2025 Fern Schair Award for increasing children’s understanding of the legal system through the Judge Kim and the Kids’ Court children’s book series, which he co-authored, and for promoting positive messages of youth empowerment throughout his work.

Shawn Martinbrough is a comic book artist, author and native New Yorker.

Sharing the Mission

Executive Director Liberty Aldrich addressed the room, stressing the tremendous need for CLC’s services that exists in Family Court—and the acute lack of resources to fulfill those needs.

“We work with 5,000 children and young people a year. We currently have 49 lawyers. I will let you do the math.”

It’s a funny thing about children,” said Aldrich. “We talk about them constantly, we argue about what is best for them, we claim we do everything ‘for them.’ But we don’t always actually listen to them… At CLC, when we meet our clients, we tell them that they are our boss.”

Jahlia Hernandez, a former CLC client, spoke about her experiences in Family Court as a child and her journey to founding CLC’s Children’s Voice Project and attending law school. Hernandez presented the award to Shawn Martinbrough.

Josh Santangelo, Esq., who spearheads CLC’s Youth Guardianship Project for children seeking Special Immigrant Juvenile Status relief, shared client stories with the room.