Opening argument for linking lawyers, arts
Ellis Henican
May 21, 2006
Here is the art world, and there is the business world, living side by side in New York.
As always, they eye each other – not with suspicion exactly, but with a wistful kind of confusion and the occasional shaking head.
“Neither world really understands the other,” Kianga Ellis was saying at week’s end. “They each say to themselves, ‘Oh, I wonder what goes on over there.’ Wouldn’t everyone benefit if we had some better bridges here?”
So the woman has begun to build.
As a little girl, Ellis liked to make collages. She was always drawn to art. But after Spelman College and Yale Law School, she set off on a promising career as a corporate associate at Cravath Swain & Moore and then assistant general counsel at Goldman Sachs.
Still, the art world kept tugging. And now, just as hundreds of summer associates are descending on the city’s prestigious law firms, this art-loving law-school grad has put her legal career on hold. She’s created a new program to introduce this year’s raw legal talent to the cultural wonders of New York – and help some of the city’s top arts institutions recruit the philanthropists of tomorrow.
The Summer Arts Circle, it’s called. It’s a 10-week series of arts events for law-firm summer associates. It’s not just free tickets to MOMA and the Met. The baby lawyers are getting an inside view of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the New York City Ballet, the Public Theater, the Studio Museum of Harlem and five other top cultural institutions.
Who knows? A spark might be struck in the hearts of some of these future big earners. A new generation of art philanthropists could be born.
“Support for the arts should be as important a part of this life as a Louis Vuitton bag or summers in the Hamptons,” Ellis said. “Let’s have people saying to each other, ‘This is what I’m supporting. What are you supporting?’”
She’s gotten 10 of the city’s biggest law firms to sign on. Besides her old firm, Cravath, they include Sullivan & Cromwell, Willkie Farr & Gallagher, Stroock Stroock & Lavan, and Sonnenschein Nath & Rosenthal.
Those on both sides of her legal-arts bridge sound excited.
“It’s a perfect matchmaking system,” said Amy Goldrich, who is co-chairwoman of the young supporters group at the New Museum of Contemporary Art. “Unless you are born a Rockefeller, philanthropy is something you have to be taught to do. Even for a young person with a genuine interest in the arts, sometimes it’s hard to find your way in.”
“We already give the summer associates a great legal experience,” said Steven Spiess, executive director at Cravath. “This is a way to expose them to the cultural side of the city. There are some amazing opportunities.”
All the big firms have become focused on providing a balanced experience for their summer hires, Ellis said. Fat paychecks, expense-account dinners and high-powered mentors, it turns out, aren’t enough anymore.
“Even in their first interviews, these young people are asking questions about lifestyle at the firm,” Ellis said. “The firms are all looking for ways to show, ‘We will support the life you want outside the firm.’”
The Summer Arts Circle also includes a targeted Web site, a calendar of artsy social events and a system for keeping the law students in touch when they go back to school.
“This is about unpacking it for people,” Ellis said. “It’s explaining how much you are helping a young artist just by buying a piece. How important that is. It’s the same for these institutions. That building didn’t just come up out of the air. It can add something to your life.”
The only question for Ellis is, why stop here?
Why just New York? Why just lawyers? Why not successful young people across the country being drawn into the arts?
“We’ve only begun,” she said.
Contact Ellis at henican@newsday.com and hear him 4-6 p.m. weekdays on WOR/710′s “Henican & White.”
Copyright 2006 Newsday Inc.
