Lauder Lawyer Honored by Legal Aid Society

The Legal Aid Society will honor Sara E. Moss, executive vice president and general counsel of The Estée Lauder Companies with the Servant of Justice Award at its 40^th Annual Awards Dinner tomorrow in New York City.


Moss, a leading advocate for the provision of civil legal services to low-income New Yorkers, will receive the Servant of Justice Award for their support of The Legal Aid Society and its clients, and for their outstanding dedication to the quest for equal justice.


Moss’s passion for the law, higher education and community engagement reaches far beyond her position at The Estée Lauder Companies. She is vice chair of the board of directors of The Legal Aid Society and serves on other boards including New York University Law School, the New York Common Pantry, the M·A·C AIDS Fund and The Estée Lauder Companies Charitable Foundation.  She has testified about the urgent need for civil legal services for New York’s poor before the Chief Judge’s Commission on Legal Services.


Moss has been with The Estée Lauder Companies in roles of increasing responsibility for more than 13 years. She began her career as a clerk for the Honorable Constance Baker Motley, U.S. District Judge in the Southern District of New York and then became a litigator at Davis Polk & Wardwell. She went on to serve as an Assistant US Attorney in the Southern District where she prosecuted a wide range of federal cases.  Moving back to the private sector, Ms. Moss was a senior litigation partner at Howard, Smith & Levin (now Covington & Burling) and then Senior Vice President and General Counsel at Pitney Bowes Inc.


Proceeds from this event will benefit the Society’s Civil Practice, which represents approximately 128,000 vulnerable New Yorkers including senior citizens, children and adults with disabilities, survivors of domestic violence, immigrants, low-wage workers, persons living with HIV/AIDS, and homeless and imminently homeless children and adults. The awards dinner proceeds are crucial to enable the Society's front-line staff in all five boroughs to provide essential civil legal services in the midst of these challenging times for the vulnerable low-income families and individuals we represent.


The Legal Aid Society is a private, not-for-profit legal services organization, the oldest and largest in the nation, dedicated since 1876 to providing quality legal representation to low-income New Yorkers. It is dedicated to one simple but powerful belief: that no New Yorker should be denied access to justice because of poverty.