Lisa Laplace
About Lisa
Lisa Laplace (IAC/NMC 73-79, IAC Parent 09-14, 16-17) is an attorney, advocate, and lecturer with 20+ years of experience encompassing public interest and corporate law. She is currently Deputy Pro Bono Counsel at Milbank LLP where she advances Milbank's pro bono mission by helping design, implement, and manage well-supported, ethically sound, and impactful pro bono initiatives aligned with the firm's priorities. At Milbank, Laplace works closely with attorneys, nonprofit partners, and community organizations to expand pro bono legal advocacy, integrate pro bono work into the firm’s culture, and identify opportunities for impact litigation.
Prior to joining Milbank, Laplace was a Senior Staff Attorney and Director of Pro Bono Program at the New York Civil Liberties Union, where she focused on litigation and advocacy concerning disability rights, First Amendment, privacy, police transparency and accountability issues. She was responsible for program development and led the Pro Bono, Equality Watch New York, Summer Legal Intern & Legal Intake Programs.
Laplace was a member of the Willowbrook Task Force, which advances the rights of people with intellectual and developmental disabilities, and is a member of the Pro Bono & Legal Services Committee. Laplace also served on the Public Interest Pro Bono Association and the New York City Bar Association’s Civil Rights and Copyright & Intellectual Property Committees for several years.
Prior to joining the NYCLU in 2005, Laplace was a litigation associate at the law firms of Sullivan & Cromwell and Paul Hastings, where she litigated a wide range of commercial and intellectual property law cases as well as pro bono matters involving civil liberties.
Laplace is passionate about the arts, yoga, and the opportunity to use her diverse arts background and legal skillset to preserve and advance cultural institutions. For several years, she was a guest lecturer at CUNY Graduate Center’s PhD Program speaking on the First Amendment’s impact on the arts. Laplace has been teaching yoga since 2025. A ballet, theater, and piano enthusiast, Laplace attended Interlochen Center for the Arts and now serves as President of its Engagement Council and a member of its Board of Directors. Within the Board, she is a member of the Audit & Risk Management Committee and Centennial Celebration Advisory Committee. As a Board Member, she offers particular expertise in risk mitigation and the intersection of the First Amendment and the Arts.
Laplace is a graduate of Duke University (B.A. 1987) and Brooklyn Law School (J.D. 1990), where she served as Articles Editor for the Brooklyn Law Review. She lives in Manhattan and has two adult children. They enjoy taking ballet classes together.
You leave Interlochen with a sense of certainty about yourself as a person as well as an artist -- an incredible gift that you cannot get from the outside world.