Annual Awards Luncheon
About Our Annual Awards Luncheon
Join us for our Annual Awards Luncheon, an amazing afternoon of celebrating case victories and client perseverance, honoring advocates, and thanking our dedicated donors!
Each year, Inner City Law Center presents two prestigious awards—the Humanitarian Award and the Katharine Krause Award—to champions who have worked to bring justice to people experiencing homelessness. Our Annual Awards Luncheon is our single biggest fundraiser of the year; the sponsorships pledged and funds raised make our vital year-round work possible.
Thank You to Our 2025 Luncheon Sponsors!
2025 Honoree Dolores Huerta
Inner City Law Center is delighted to honor labor rights legend Dolores Huerta with our 2025 Humanitarian Award for her transformative work in underserved communities across Southern California. Her lifelong social justice work, from co-founding the United Farm Workers to advocating for housing and immigrant rights, has made a deep impact on the same Angelenos Inner City Law Center serves. In 2003, Huerta founded the Dolores Huerta Foundation, which operates resource centers offering low-cost services to promote economic security and empowerment. These centers are hubs of community support that address a wide range of needs, including housing insecurity. The foundation works to mobilize residents in overlooked communities, spreading awareness of tenant rights and organizing collective actions to fight housing injustice.
2025 Honoree Nithya Raman
Inner City Law Center is excited to honor Los Angeles City Councilmember Nithya Raman with our 2025 Humanitarian Award for addressing homelessness as a central focus of her work since taking office in 2020, emphasizing both compassionate outreach and systemic reform. With her keen understanding that the best way to end homelessness is to prevent it, Raman has prioritized renter protections, affordable housing preservation, and housing production. Raman proposed creating a bureau within the Los Angeles Housing Department to oversee homelessness investments, ensuring effective use of funds and improved coordination across city departments. Under her leadership, her district has experienced a 38% reduction in unsheltered homelessness.
2025 Honoree Robins Kaplan LLP
Inner City Law Center is proud to honor Robins Kaplan LLP with our 2025 Katharine Krause Award for its commitment to advancing justice for people experiencing homelessness. In 2024, the firm played a pivotal role in securing a landmark victory for disabled homeless veterans. In collaboration with Public Counsel, Brown Goldstein & Levy, and Inner City Law Center, the firm helped achieve a historic ruling that mandates significant reforms at the West Los Angeles VA Campus, including new housing and improved healthcare services for disabled veterans. Robins Kaplan provided over 19,500 hours of pro bono work in 2024, exemplifying the firm’s dedication to addressing critical legal needs, advocating for struggling populations, and making a measurable impact in communities across the country.
2025 Honoree Brown Goldstein & Levy LLP
Inner City Law Center is pleased to honor Brown Goldstein & Levy LLP with our 2025 Katharine Krause Award for its impactful pro bono work on behalf of many Inner City Law Center clients. Founded in 1982, Brown Goldstein & Levy devotes hundreds of hours a year to providing high-quality legal representation at no cost. Maintaining a robust pro bono practice is one way that it is closing the gap between those who can afford a lawyer and those who cannot. BGL has contributed more than 960 hours of legal services (valued at over half a million dollars) to Inner City Law Center clients over the past two years. These efforts have transformed the lives of unhoused veterans living in Los Angeles.
Our Past Past Honorees
Katharine Krause, a charismatic and well-respected attorney, was an early leader of the public interest law community and an ICLC Board member. The Katharine Krause Award is presented to an individual or entity that has made notable contributions to our client communities.
2025 – Robins Kaplan LLP and Brown, Goldstein & Levy
2024 – JAMS and Richard Chernick
2023 – Troutman Pepper
2022 – Alston & Bird LLP
2021 – Michael Alder, Dan Woods, and James Judge
2020 – QueensCare
2019 – Skadden
2018 – Munger, Tolles & Olson LLP
2017 – Marian Wright Edelman and Peter Edelman
2016 – DecisionQuest and Michael Cobo
2015 – Dan Grunfeld and Morgan, Lewis & Bockius LLP
2014 – Michael N. Feuer
2013 – The Honorable Hilda L. Solis
2012 – Dr. Judith Broader of The Soldiers Project
2011 – O’Melveny & Myers LLP and Paul Salvaty
2010 – Southern California Edison
2009 – Mayor Eric Garcetti
2008 – Toyota Motor Sales USA, Inc.
2007 – The Very Reverend Ernesto Medina
2006 – Steve Lopez
2005 – Skid Row Housing Trust and Michael Alvidrez
2004 – Bird, Marella, Boxer & Wolpert and Dorothy Wolpert 2003 Latham & Watkins LLP and James D.C. Barrall
2002 – Professor Gary Blasi
2001 – Howrey LLP and Thomas Nolan
2000 – White & Case LLP and Daniel James Woods
1999 – Reverend Donald P. Merrifield, S.J. and Donald Mullane 1998 Stephen English
1997 – Gerald Secundy
1996 – Robert Carlson
The Humanitarian Award is presented to an individual or entity who has demonstrated a remarkable commitment to the underprivileged residents of Los Angeles.
2025 – Dolores Huerta and Councilmember Nithya Raman
2024 – Crowell & Moring LLP
2023 – Supervisor Sheila Kuehl
2022 – Alya and Dr. Gary Michaelson
2021 – Jacqueline Waggoner, Kelli Bernard, and The Ad Hoc Committee on Black People Experiencing Homelessness
2020 – Latham & Watkins LLP
2019 – Vijay Gupta
2018 – The Weingart Foundation and Fred J. Ali
2017 – Judicate West Foundation and Var Fox
2016 – Girardi Keese
2015 – Edward P. Roski, Jr.
2014 – Caldwell Leslie & Proctor, PC and Andrew Esbenshade
2013 – Manatt, Phelps & Phillips, LLP and Margaret Levy
2012 – Munger, Tolles and Olson LLP
2011 – Justice Carlos R. Moreno (Ret.)
2010 – California Community Foundation and Antonia Hernandez
2009 – Judge Dorothy Nelson
2008 – Judge Harry Pregerson
2007 – Nancy Mintie
2006 – Chief Justice Ronald M. George
2005 – Bruce Iwasaki
2004 – Reverend Gregory J. Boyle, S.J.
2003 – Stephen R. English
2002 – Antonio Villaraigosa
2001 – Henry Cisneros
Watch the 2025 Awards Awards Luncheon Client Spotlight Stories
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