Legal Happenings
Celebrating a Decade of Law Rocking for Charity in D.C.
September 23, 2025
The band Malicious Code rocked out for Catholic Charities, DC.
On September 11, eight bands made up of attorneys and their legal staff, clients, and friends from the Washington, D.C., area took to the stage at The Atlantis to celebrate a decade of rock in support of charity at the annual Law Rocks DC.
Playing to a sold-out crowd, their performances spanning a variety of styles, the competing bands raised more than $149,000 for deserving local causes by the end of the evening.
The overall winner, Malicious Code, was a band assembled expressly for the purpose of performing at Law Rocks. The eight-member group, made up of attorneys from Baker & Hostetler LLC; Fish & Richardson P.C.; and Taft, Stettinius & Hollister LLP had never played together live before and only practiced on three occasions prior to their performance, according to Jon Knight, a Baker & Hostetler cybersecurity and investigations attorney who served as the band’s ad hoc lead vocalist and played rhythm guitar.
Like many participants, Knight had a background in music. “I thought I wanted to do music for a long time but decided I liked it so much I didn’t want to make a job out of it, so it’s just what I do for fun,” Knight said. Malicious Code played a mix of southern rock, country, and ’90s alternative rock. Their cover of Lynyrd Skynyrd’s “Simple Man” was both emotional and virtuosic, an interesting choice over the more commonly covered “Free Bird.” The group raised funds in support of Catholic Charities, DC.
Last year’s winning band, Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld LLP’s Night Work, took this year’s Judges’ Choice Award. The group’s lineup had seen some modification since their last performance. “We have a new female singer who brings a Stevie Nicks kind of sound, so we’ll be doing a couple of Stevie Nicks tunes,” said vocalist and Akin partner Matthew R. Nicely before the event. “We’re also doing some grunge and some Rolling Stones.” Night Work played for Blood Cancer United.
Venable LLP’s longtime band Almost Noise (in the Basement) took home the Hustle & Heart Award. Partner Andrew Price said that the band’s secret weapons were their singer and dual guitarists. “The strategy is to be louder and more powerful than anybody else,” Price said before taking the stage. “Unfortunately, the sound guy probably won’t let us do that.”
Regardless, the group’s cover of “The Pretender” by the Foo Fighters connected strongly with the crowd. Price noted the importance of the Foo Fighters to the local music scene, saying that the band had been the opening act when The Atlantis was established. Fundraising efforts by Almost Noise benefited Friends of ROAM, a nonprofit providing need-based scholarships to young musicians.
At the event’s conclusion, Law Rocks executive director Omi Crawford presented the 2025 Law Rocks Music Matters grant to A. Toni Lewis, the CEO and founder of the Foundation for the Advancement of Music and Education (FAME), a local nonprofit supporting youth music education. FAME provides local students at underserved schools music training and academic support, giving them hands-on access to music technology and production equipment to combat absenteeism, increase participation, and improve academic performance.
Learn more about Law Rocks in this Washington Lawyer feature on the annual rock competition.
