37th Annual Stand for Justice Gala

We celebrated our 37th Annual Stand for Justice Gala on Saturday, September 22, 2018, at Skirball Cultural Center.

Over 400 guests joined us in celebration of our two outstanding honorees.

Our Honorees

Hon. Mitchell L. BeckloffOutstanding Community Service Award

Judge Mitchell Beckloff is the Supervising Judge for the West District of the Los Angeles Superior Court. He presides over a general jurisdiction civil courtroom at the Santa Monica Courthouse. Over the course of his judicial career, Judge Beckloff has heard matters in the juvenile, family and probate courts.

From August through December 2015, Judge Beckloff served as a justice pro tempore in Division Seven of the Second District Court of Appeal. He was the Supervising Judge of the Probate Division of the court from 2009 through 2013.

Judge Beckloff was appointed to the court by Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger in 2007, after having served as a Superior Court Commissioner from 2001 and as a Juvenile Court Referee from 1999.

He is a 1989 magna cum laude graduate of Loyola Law School in Los Angeles. At Loyola, he received numerous academic awards, was Order of the Coif, a member of Alpha Sigma Nu and an editor of the law review.

Dinah Conyers RuchEthel Levitt Humanitarian Award

Dinah Conyers Ruch graduated from Tulane University and went on to teach French and Music in New Orleans. Her commitment to community and charitable causes began as a volunteer with the New Orleans Symphony and the Young Audiences Program. In 1983 she married Bill Ruch and moved to Los Angeles. Her passion for service led her to enroll at Southwestern Law School.

Dinah’s relationship with LevittQuinn began when it was a small storefront office in Silver Lake. She started helping clients with their paperwork and preparing them for court. Although she and her colleagues helped many clients, many more needed attorney representation. She responded to that need by being one of the first attorneys to represent LevittQuinn clients in court. For the next 26 years, Dinah has been with the Center in one capacity or another, including a six-month stint as the Acting Executive Director. In 2014, Dinah started the Kids Fund to provide free legal services to the most needy clients with legal issues involving children. She served as the President of the Board from 1995 to 2001, and from 2005 to 2017. During her second term as President, the Center expanded its services to more people while reducing fees, raised capital funds to renovate the historic Ziva Building and modernize equipment, and forged liaisons with other nonprofits to maximize service. The donor base more than doubled and the Board of Directors expanded to include leaders in business and entertainment as well as the law.

Dinah served on other boards, including Campbell Hall School and the City of Hope. The Bill and Dinah Ruch Family Foundation has focused support on local organizations that operate efficiently and meaningfully impact the community. Recently, Dinah founded Thinking Nation, a project that uses study of the Constitution to help middle and high school students develop the analytical skills they will need to navigate an increasingly complex world.

Dinah has two children who volunteered as teens at LevittQuinn. Now, Jennifer is President of the Board of “The Roots of Music”, an after-school program in New Orleans. Taylor, an independent filmmaker, produced the 2016 LevittQuinn video and joined the LevittQuinn Board last year.