I am applying for an LLM in Harvard, Cornell, Penn, NYU, Fordham and Columbia and (except for Columbia) could not find information as to whether those law schools can award the LLM degree early enough for the student to sit the NY bar in July of the graduation year. The application deadline for the NY bar is normally April 30. I would be grateful for any information regarding this.

Hey, I am an LLM graduate from Fordham and what I can tell you from my experience is that the graduation is scheduled before the commencement of the bar prep, which is usually the third week of May. Although I am not sure about the others, I can only guess that they have a similar policy.
I can suggest you to take a look at their respective websites and look for the academic calendar, where everything is pinned down, including the graduation date. Best regards.