2021 Grunin Prize

The Grunin Center administers the Grunin Prize for Law and Social Entrepreneurship to celebrate the contributions of lawyers who purposefully engage in advancing the fields of social entrepreneurship, impact investing, and sustainable development.

The Grunin Center for Law and Social Entrepreneurship is made possible through a generous endowment from NYU School of Law graduates Jay Grunin ’67 and Linda Kalmanowitz Grunin ’67, and the Grunin Foundation. Jay and Linda have dedicated their philanthropic endeavors to investing in innovative projects that have measurable impacts creating meaningful, transformative change.

Grunin Prize Winner

Beccar Varela - Trust of the Argentine Network of Municipalities against Climate Change (RAMCC Trust)

Trust of the Argentine Network of Municipalities against Climate Change (RAMCC Trust)

Nominated legal teams: Daniel Levi, Partner; Carolina Serra, Partner; Dorothea Garff, Senior Associate; Santiago Barbarán, Senior Associate; Constanza Connolly, Counsel; Evangelina Petrizza, Economist, Head of Sustainability Department; Agostina Diana Warszawski, Junior Associate; and Agostina Coniglio, Junior Associate.

The project: The RAMCC Trust is a versatile private contractual vehicle structured by the Argentine Network of Municipalities against Climate Change (RAMCC), for the purpose of financing and investing in projects that may generate a positive environmental, economic and social impact, for the direct benefit of the Municipalities members of the Trust. This vehicle is the first of its kind in the country, enabling for several public Municipalities of different sizes and regions of Argentina the possibility to pursue and finance together significant sustainability projects, in a transparent, scalable and cost-efficient way.

Grunin Prize Finalists

Meet the finalists below:

Morgan Lewis - Black Economic Development Fund (BEDF)

Nominated Legal Teams 

Bob Cooney, General Counsel, LISC; Theodore Shen, Assistant General Counsel, LISC; Richard Pinner, General Counsel, LISC; Miranda Lindl O’Connell, Partner, Morgan Lewis; Celia Roady, Partner, Morgan Lewis; and Charles Horn, Partner, Morgan Lewis.

The Project

Through the deployment of capital through bank deposits, bridge financing, and other financings to Black-led businesses, financial institutions, and anchor institutions, BEDF aims to create opportunities to increase access to capital and address the historical lack of credit opportunities for Black communities.

Rastegar Panchal RPCK - Dual Guarantee Facility to Finance Critical Healthcare Needs at the Front-Lines of COVID-19 in Sub-Saharan Africa

Nominated Legal Team

Heather Eisenlord, Partner; Chintan Panchal, Partner; Marie Cita, Associate.

The Project

The Dual Guaranty Facility (DGF) is a blended finance credit support structure that allows a diverse consortium of financial backers to coordinate their efforts and rapidly unlock capital, especially in acute situations.  The DGF utilizes and harmonizes the unique advantages that philanthropic, private and governmental/DFI actors bring to intractable challenges like the Global Pandemic. Utilizing the DGF, Malaria No More partnered with The Rockefeller Foundation, the Skoll Foundation, the MCJ Amelior Foundation and the US International Development Finance Corporation to unlock more than $30 million in loans to SME health providers, preventing the closure of an estimated 1600 health facilities throughout sub-Saharan Africa, impacting approximately 5 million patients.

Gundzik Gundzik Heeger - Little Tokyo Community Impact Fund, SPC

Nominated Legal Team

Brett Heeger, Partner; Alex Glancy, Associate; and Edward Gelfand, Of Counsel.

The Project

Using a combination of a unique entity type, special securities permitting, and a distinctive multi-class governing structure, the legal team at Gundzik Gundzik Heeger LLP helped design and launch a fund for the benefit of and accountable to the community stakeholders of Los Angeles’s Historic Little Tokyo for generations to come.

Morgan Lewis & Morrison Foerster - Small Business COVID Recovery Loan Funds

Nominated Legal Teams

Morgan Lewis Legal Team: Patricia Brennan, Partner, Finance; Daniel Carmody, Partner, Tax; Sarah Nelson, Partner, Tax; Paul St. Lawrence, Partner, Structured Transactions; Shira Helstrom, Associate, Tax – Non Profit; Abby Jacobs, Associate, Structured Transactions; Albert Tsoi, Associate, Finance; Peter Fisher, Paralegal. Morrison & Foerster Legal Team: Suz Mac Cormac, Corporate Partner; David M. Lynn, Partner, Corporate Finance; Mark Wojciechowski, Partner, Finance and Projects; Joseph Gabai, Senior Counsel, Financial Services; Kelley Howes, Of Counsel, Investment Management; Anthony J. Carbone, Partner, Tax; Linda Arnsbarger, of Counsel; Kaela Colwell, Corporate Associate; Jesse Finfrock, Corporate Associate; Maureen Linch, Partner, Tax; Aisulu Masylkanova, Of Counsel, Financial Transactions; Olga Terets, Corporate Associate; Michael Santos, Corporate Associate; John Tawadrous; Associate, Finance and Projects; Jeff Xu, Associate, Financial Transactions.

The Project

The economic impact of COVID has been unprecedented.  One of the hardest hit segments of the US economy has been the small business community. Smaller, community-based businesses – many in low-income communities and led by women and people of color – were already suffering from decades of discrimination, lack of access to affordable capital, and an insufficient safety net.  The pandemic has only exacerbated these existing inequalities.  The Community Development Financial Institution (CDFI) industry has operated for over 40 years to serve these traditionally underserved communities with capital and advisory services.  The innovative legal teams at Morgan Lewis and MoFo, working together, have built a new off-balance sheet blended finance model which allows CDFIs to grow exponentially and expand their reach to these traditionally underserved communities.  To date, three loan funds have been launched (NY Forward in June 2020, CA Rebuilding Fund I in Nov 2020 and SOAR in April 2021) and two more are in the pipeline (CA Rebuilding Fund II anticipated to launch May 2021 and the WA Small Business Flex Fund is anticipated to launch June 2021).   The NY Forward Loan Fund and the first California Rebuilding Fund have collectively originated more than 1700 loans as of May 2021, 90% of which have been to business with 10 or fewer employees, 88% with gross revenues of less than $1 million and 65% of which have been to businesses owned by a woman and/or black, indigenous or person of color.

Blue Nature Alliance, Conservation International Foundation, Royal Society for the Protection of Birds/International Eco Fund, The Pew Charitable Trusts, National Geographic Society, DLA Piper, Tristan da Cunha Government Attorney-General - Tristan da Cunha Community Fund 

Nominated Legal Teams 

Conservation International Foundation: Andrew Schatz, Legal Advisor – Conservation Finance & Wildlife; Lee Gillespie-White, Associate General Counsel. Royal Society for the Protection of Birds/International Eco Fund: Victoria Watts, Legal Advisor.  The Pew Charitable Trusts: Jennifer Dill, Officer, Legal Affairs and Counsel; Chris Thomson, Director, Legal Affairs and Senior Counsel.  National Geographic Society: Jeanne Fink, Vice President & Senior Associate General Counsel. DLA Piper: Mei Mei Wong, Legal Director; Harry Thompson, Associate; Marie Kingston, International Pro Bono Counsel; Ann Lilienthal, Associate; Conrad Proulx, Associate; Gregory Smith, Partner; Bella Chan, Trainee, Deborah Brown, Legal Director; Serena Stangroom, Trainee. Tristan da Cunha Government Attorney-General’s Officer: Aldhelm Garner

The Project

Seven donor organizations (Becht Family Charitable Trusts, Don Quixote II Foundation, Kaltroco, National Geographic Pristine Seas, Wyss Foundation, and Conservation International and The Pew Charitable Trusts, acting on behalf of the Blue Nature Alliance), joined together to establish the £4 million ($5.5 million) Tristan da Cunha Community Fund held by the International Eco Fund and administered by the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds for the benefit of the UK overseas territory of Tristan da Cunha.  The parties developed a common grant agreement with uniform terms governing among other things, the endowment fund, annual disbursements, local governance, monitoring and evaluation, donor remedies, and - equally importantly - incorporating local Tristanian input and protections into the core operational structure of the fund. The fund’s establishment, economic security, and inclusive governance structure enabled the Tristan government to create the Tristan da Cunha Marine Protection Zone, which at over 687,000 km2 (or the size of Texas), constitutes an astounding 90% of the sovereign territory’s exclusive economic zone, the largest no-take zone in the Atlantic Ocean, and the world’s fourth largest marine reserve. It further serves as a model for other governments and donors to establish similar funds providing long-term economic stability for island nations, while contributing to global efforts to preserve 30 percent of our oceans by 2030.

2021 Judging Panel

• Navjeet K. Bal
• Deborah K. Burand
• David A. Goldstein
• Jay Grunin
• Trevor Morrison
• Jonathan Ng
• Helen Scott