Todd Longwell For 27 of the last 32 years, Ziffren Brittenham senior partner Clifford Gilbert-Lurie has served as one of the chairs of the Champions for Children’s gala dinner benefiting the Alliance for Children’s Rights, an experience he says is akin to throwing a wedding. “There’s so much that goes into it, and then you’re very concerned that the dinner comes off well and everybody has a good time and it’s meaningful,” explains Gilbert-Lurie, who’s a past chairman and current board member of the organization. “When it’s finally over, I take this huge sigh of relief, because I don’t have to worry about it for a couple more months.” According to Universal Studio Group chairman Pearlena Igbokwe, Gilbert-Lurie doesn’t wait that long.
She says that he called her just a few days after last year’s dinner, “while I was still in the afterglow of an amazing night,” and asked her to be the Champions for Children Award honoree at the 2024 event, held in March and which raised more than $1.5 million. “I couldn’t say no, because it’s such an amazing organization and the fact that it was Cliff asking me,” says Igbokwe.
As exhausting as Gilbert-Lurie’s description of his work on behalf Alliance for Children’s Rights might sound, it actually undersells what he does for the nonprofit, which provides pro bono legal services and advocacy for caregivers, adoptive parents, children and teens in Los Angeles. “Cliff gives both his heart and his head to this organization,” says Alliance for Children’s Rights CEO Jennifer L.
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