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| EVENT REPORT 08.02.07 1:56 PM |
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| Justice for All |
| Bet Tzedek drew a crowd of 4,000 to the Justice Ball, a major summer networking party with a performance by the Violent Femmes. |
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| FROM LOS ANGELES Over the years, the Justice Ball has migrated from the House of Blues to the Santa Monica Museum of Flying to the Hollywood Palladium and venues beyond. Now in its 11th year, the event can barely be contained within four walls. On Saturday, the fund-raiser for Los Angeles’s poverty law organization Bet Tzedek—the House of Justice expanded onto the parking lot of West Hollywood’s the Lot, formerly Warner Bros. Hollywood. With its growing reputation as a top summer networking op for young lawyers, singles, and Jews, the event has ballooned into a nondenominational party for 4,000. |
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A large crowd, a vast space, and a nonprofit-size budget created planning challenges for the event’s longtime producer, Shawn Flannigan of Gunnar Productions, who worked with event chairs Erin Cooper Rotgin, Allan Schweitzer, Ben Sheffner, David Shraga, and Jeff Sklar. Flannigan brought in Flag Systems, which has worked on such high-profile gigs as Elton John’s concerts, to provide sound for the centerpiece performance by the Violent Femmes and to decorate the space with light. Gobos cast a scrollwork-like pattern across the parking spaces, and large, ‘70s-style projections of kaleidoscopic color flanked the concert stage.
The most elaborate decor outfitted the super-duper V.I.P. area, where law firms, families, and other high rollers reserved black-and-white-striped cabanas from Z.Gallerie, which were illuminated with Rrivre Works Inc.‘s black chandeliers. Guests in the general V.I.P. area snacked on crab cakes, satay, and mushroom tart hors d’oeuvres, lounged on S-shaped white banquettes, and moseyed up to curving white bars with inset lighting and geometric backdrops.
In addition to the 75-minute performance, organizers offered guests a menu of activities that included post-concert dancing, casino gaming, a silent auction, a dessert and coffee bar, and a karaoke lounge. The event raised $550,000 for Bet Tzedek, which provides legal aid to clients without regard to their religion or race.
—Irene Lacher |
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 | | The crowd at the Justice Ball.
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The event's activities included a silent auction.
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 | | The centerpiece of the event was a performance by the Violent Femmes.
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