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Thursday, September 28, 2017
9:30 Club
$96,000 in total fundraising
Winner: Noise in the Basement of LexisNexis / Venable for Together We Bake
Judges' Choice Award: The Disclaimers of Institute for Building, Technology & Safety; Silis and Associates; Legal E for So Others Might Eat (SOME)
It is always a great time at the 9:30 Club, one of the best venues in the US. For our third DC event eleven bands of lawyers who rock took over the venue to benefit their favorite local nonprofits. Nine veteran bands rocked the show and we welcomed two new bands to the event - The Disclaimers and IC/DC - who kept things quite competitive, raising over $30K between them! The bands all rocked, playing diverse and creative sets, but in the end Noise in the Basement took home the title for the second year in a row with enthusiastic fan base and total fundraising hitting above $23,000!
THE BANDS
Bands / Nonprofits / Judges / Photo / Video
Featuring legal professionals from Steptoe & Johnson; Federal Mine Safety & Health Review Commission
Rocking for Gifts for the Homeless and Lex Mundi Pro Bono Foundation
Steptoe & Johnson LLP’s band ATTRACTIVE NUISANCE was formed in 2011 with two goals, rock out, and raise money for DC-area charities. The band specializes in classic rock and funk covers and features talented instrumentalists and singers.
Featuring legal professionals from U.S. Government; Law Offices of Peter C. Hansen, LLC; Boies, Schiller & Flexner LLP; Humanity United; The Rader Group
Rocking for Central Union Mission
Buzzard Point Caucus: as a local secret society of lawyers who rock, Buzzard Point Caucus emerges from the shadows to proudly participate in Law Rocks DC. Buzzard Point Caucus joins this epic rock battle to support and raise funds for the Central Union Mission in D.C., an organization dedicated to providing shelter, food, education, and other assistance to people in need. Come out on September 28 to the legendary 9:30 Club, a venue Rolling Stone ranked as the best music club in the country. Donate, buy tickets, and join us to rock – secret handshake not required.
Buzzard Point Caucus features John Knight (guitar, vocals), Liz Taylor (vocals), Ben Christoff (guitar, vocals), Corban Teague (bass), Justin Heminger (keyboards, vocals), and Mike King (drums).
Featuring legal talent from Institute for Building, Technology & Safety; Silis and Associates; Legal E
Rocking for So Others Might Eat (SOME)
The Disclaimers are going to bring you the best classic rock of the 70’s in support of So Others Might Eat (SOME), an organization providing food, clothing and healthcare to the poor and homeless in the nation’s capital. Each day, SOME is restoring hope and dignity one person at a time. Help us get the word out with your vote, support SOME and come out for a great evening of classic rock with The Disclaimers....Let's Go! The Disclaimers are Jerry Darby (Vocals & Guitar), Jeff Darby (Guitar & Vocals), Eric Schlam (Guitar, Keys and Vocals), Tom Silis (Bass & Vocals), and Jim Erb (Drums & Percussion).
Featuring in-house counsel from General Dynamics Mission Systems; ASRC Federal; Fannie Mae; Merchant Link; Amazon Web Services
Rocking for Sentinels of Freedom
IC/DC was formed specifically to perform at Law Rocks DC and aims to accomplish two things: (1) poking some good natured fun at our law firm friends – both through a couple parody songs and by displaying our time management superiority by pulling this show off with just 4 practices as a band; and (2) raising a bunch of money for Sentinels of Freedom – an awesome organization that assists severely wounded and injured post-9/11 Veterans successfully complete higher education, find career-focused employment, and gain financial independence. Look for local Sentinels at the show and thank them for their service and sacrifice!
IC/DC are: Elizabeth Pierce (vocals); Katie John (vocals); Cliff Greenblatt (guitar); Devon Engel (bass); Michael Tow (keyboards); and Marc Zoellner (drums).
Featuring legal professionals from Walsh, Colucci, Lubeley, & Walsh, PC
Rocking for HomeAid Northern Virginia
Featuring legal professionals from Venable LLP; LexisNexis
Rocking for Together We Bake
Noise in the Basement proudly returns to the legendary 930 Club stage after winning Law Rocks DC 2016! They followed up that performance by taking a self-congratulatory victory lap out to Law Rocks LA to play the iconic Whisky a Go Go. With their West Coast "tour" complete, NITB has occasionally be seen entertaining crowds in the DC area with a high energy catalog of alt-rock hits.
Featuring legal professionals from Kenealy Vaidya LLP; Venture Global LNG
Rocking for Calvary Women's Services
The Porch Lights are the official house band of the Rosemont neighborhood of Alexandria, Virginia. After opening the successful Law Rocks 2016 last year, the Porch Lights are bringing their unique mix of rock and alt-country classics back to the 9:30 Club, once again in support of Calvary Women’s Services. The line-up includes Max Keeler (lead guitar and vocals), David Kenealy (guitar), Keith Larson (drums), Stephen MacBride (vocals, bass, harmonica), utility infielder Ajit Vaidya and Jessica Wehrman (lead vocals).
Featuring legal professionals from Finnegan, Henderson, Farabow, Garrett & Dunner, LLP
Rocking for Children's Law Center
[redacted] IS BACK! Finnegan is proud and pumped up to be participating in the second annual Law Rocks DC fundraising event at the legendary 9:30 Club on Thursday, September 28! [redacted] will be rocking out to support the Children’s Law Center, a local organization that assists DC children who have been abused or neglected, caught in custody battles, live in poor housing, or have special education needs. By supporting [redacted] with your donation to the Children’s Law Center, you are advancing the band’s quest to win the battle of law firm bands, but, most importantly, EVERY dime you contribute will go to help these less fortunate children in our area. This is an awesome way to band together with our fellow law firms to support this and other worthy causes. In exchange for your vote of $$, we promise to play our hearts out and bring down the house! VOTE EARLY AND OFTEN! THANK YOU FOR YOUR GENEROUS SUPPORT!! Let’s ROCK!!
[redacted] features Forrest Jones, vocals; Brandon Korch, drums; Norm Lester, bass; Lauren Dowty, trombone; Jonathan Davies, trumpet; J.P. Long, guitar; and Mike Flibbert, guitar.
Featuring legal professionals from Perkins Coie LLP; AFL-CIO; Alliance for Green Heat
Rocking for Chesapeake Climate Action Network
Featuring legal talent from Columbus School of Law; DC Office of Tax and Revenue; Montgomery County State's Attorney's Office; Squire Patton Boggs
Rocking for Catholic Charities Archdiocese of Washington DC
The Tortious Tones began as innocently as any other band. Two friends, Christian Baron and Nic Zawarski got together to perform as a part of their first year class skit at the annual Columbus Awards Night at the Catholic University. Since that moment they have expanded into the iconic eclectic D.C. cover band that they are today. The Tones, as they like to be called, have performed at a host of different venues across the Washington D.C. metropolitan area. Some of the venues where the Tones have performed include Bayou DC, DC 9 Nightclub, and The Town Tavern DC to list a few.
Throughout all their success, the Tortious Tones never forgot where they came from and have become iconic as the Columbus School of Law’s in-house band . They have performed at numerous events hosted by the law school, providing quality entertainment with their classic rock and funk songs that span over a wide range of different artists.
X-Magnetics is a powerhouse rock machine featuring legal professionals from Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom, LLP; Baker & McKenzie, LLP; and the U.S. Government.
Rocking for Doorways for Women and Families
X-Magnetics features a diverse group of musicians from popular NOVA bands (The Walkaways, Naked Grace, Dr. FU, Manther, and the Overcommitments) uniting to rock it out for Doorways for Women and Families.
THE NONPROFITS
QUICK LINKS: Bands / Nonprofits / Judges / Photo / Video
ROCK PANEL OF JUDGES
Bands / Nonprofits / Judges / Photo / Video
As SVP of Client Services at JND Legal Administration, a premier legal management and administration company, Amanda leads the client services team by driving strategic direction and ensures remarkable client experience. In addition to consulting with key decision makers, Amanda has currently taken on the charge of growing JND’s operations team on the west coast.
Amanda’s career is impressive and began right out of high school where she worked for a legal administration company. While climbing the ranks she put herself through school at UCLA and law school before practicing law herself in the class action sector. Her vast legal background brought her back to legal administration in 2005. During her tenure, Amanda has led many significant music industry administrations – including the Napster Copyright Litigation and the NMPA Late Fee Program, a 2010 out-of-court settlement between major music labels and music-publishers.
But Amanda isn’t all business; she’s quite the rocker herself. Singing since childhood, Amanda has fronted numerous bands. Most recently Amanda is the vocalist for The Multipliers, a band she formed with clients. The Multipliers was specifically assembled to support The Western Center on Law and Poverty for Law Rocks SF, where they took the Great American Music Hall by storm in 2015 and 2016.
Walter Lohmann is Vice President - Special Events for Gifts for the Homeless (www.gfth.org) and is the founder of “Banding Together - - The Battle of the Law Firm Bands - - A Gifts for the Homeless Benefit,” which, in its 14 years, has raised more than $3 million to support the homeless community in the District, Maryland, and Virginia. Walt is of counsel at Kirkland & Ellis LLP, where he formerly ran the Firm’s Environmental Transactional Practice Group. Walt served, for nine years, as co-chair of Kirkland’s Firmwide Diversity Committee, work he continues as a Special Projects Coordinator for the Leadership Council on Legal Diversity (www. lcldnet.com). Learn more here.
Elliot S. Berke serves as Managing Partner of Berke Farah LLP. Prior to founding Berke Farah LLP, Elliot served as a partner and as practice group co-chair at McGuireWoods LLP. He has been named by Chambers USA as a "Nationwide Best Lawyer" and by Washingtonian as one of "Washington's Best Lawyers." His diverse client base consists of federal and state elected and appointed officials, campaign committees, political parties, PACs, corporations, small businesses, trade associations, lobbying firms, public relations firms, nonprofits and individuals. He represents clients before congressional ethics and oversight committees, the FEC, the DOJ, and other and federal and state departments and agencies. He has represented presidential appointees on their confirmation over three Administrations. He has represented the top four leadership positions in the U.S. House of Representatives – Speaker, Majority Leader, Majority Whip, and Conference Chair – as either in-house or outside counsel, and currently serves as outside counsel for Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy and Conference Chair Cathy McMorris Rodgers. In August 2017, Elliot was appointed by Speaker Paul Ryan to the Board of Advisors of the Election Assistance Commission. He has run election day war rooms for presidential and gubernatorial candidates. He is a frequent speaker on political law, and regularly conducts the ethics training for the Congressional Institute's Members of Congress and Chief of Staff retreats. His commentary has appeared in media outlets including Fox's Special Report w/Bret Baier and Tucker Carlson Tonight, NBC Nightly News, the Wall Street Journal, the New York Times, USAToday, Politico and the Washington Post. Learn more here.
PHOTOS
Bands / Nonprofits / Judges / Photo / Video
You can view a selection of the photos by Jason Dixson Photography below. Click here to browse the entire collection.
VIDEO
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Enjoy all eleven sets plus encore below!
QUICK LINKS: Bands / Nonprofits / Judges / Photo / Video