Brooklyn Boro

Meet the Bar Leaders: For Frank Carone, teamwork translates to success

June 2, 2017 By Rob Abruzzese, Legal Editor Brooklyn Daily Eagle
From left: Diana Carone, Frank Carone, Joyce Becker-Seddio and Frank Seddio at the wedding of Arthur Aidala (not pictured). Eagle photo by Mario Belluomo
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Frank Carone, second vice president of the Brooklyn Bar Association, counsel to the Kings County Democratic Party chair and partner at the law firm Abrams Fensterman, took lessons that he learned from playing baseball with his father and applied them throughout his career, which has brought him to prominence in the Brooklyn legal community.

When Carone was young, playing in the South Shore Little League in Canarsie, he and his father would frequently fight over the kids his father Frank picked to play on the team. Carone wanted only the best players, but his father insisted that every player get an opportunity to play no matter their skill level.

Despite including everyone, Carone’s teams would always be competitive. He never won a city title, but would regularly make it to the semifinals and beyond. Years later, when his father passed away, many of those players who weren’t given a chance on other teams reached out to Carone in a way that really touched him.

Now reflecting back on those fights with his dad, Carone realized the valuable lesson he was being taught those days — given the right opportunity and encouragement, a team can accomplish much more than a single individual.

“That taught me principles that have applied to many areas of my life,” Carone said. “That’s the focus on the unit and belief that the sum really is greater than its parts. I really grew up believing in the organization versus the individual. It’s funny how it all comes back to baseball.”

Carone had to give up on playing baseball after high school when he broke his arm, and went on to Kingsborough Community College, then to St. John’s University and eventually Brooklyn Law School.

After his first year in law school, he decided that he wanted to be a part of, what was in his mind, the ultimate team — the United States Marine Corp.

“The Marines are considered the best fighting force, the best unit on the face of the Earth,” Carone said. “If I could be a part of the best unit on the face of the Earth, it was irresistible to me. I was disqualified because I had asthma as a young teen. That was a blow. It wasn’t until I was disqualified that I realized how much I wanted it.”

Carone appealed the decision and was admitted to the U.S. Marines. He went into basic training between his second and third years of law school and was supposed to go into the Officer Candidate School in the summer of 1993 if he passed the bar exam where he would become a member of the Judge Advocate General’s Corps, better known as a JAG officer.

Unfortunately for Carone, it was at this time that then-President Bill Clinton decided to shrink the size of the military, which meant that there was no room for him in the school. So he started working part-time for Frank Seddio, who his family knew from living in Canarsie, and doing criminal litigation at night.

“Picture this — I can’t commit to a job, I don’t know when I’m going into the Officer Candidate School, but I have to pay rent, I have to live. So I was in limbo,” Carone said.

It was at this point where Carone was offered a position at a law firm. Still wanting to become an officer in the marines, Carone asked Seddio for advice.

“Frank told me that whatever I decided would be the right thing to do,” Carone said. “Meaning that I would make the most out of it regardless … I went on to private practice and my life went into a different direction in a way that I think was meant to be. The experience and camaraderie that I got working together with fellow marines I think put the finishing touches on a well-rounded education.”

Carone would take on various ventures over the years — he was counsel to the Chairman of the Kings County Democratic Committee, he helped to found a multi-state mortgage bank with more than 200 employees, and later was appointed to the NYC Taxi & Limousine Commission by then-Mayor Michael Bloomberg in 2011.

It was toward the end of his days as a banker when he started to get involved with the Brooklyn Bar Association thanks to then-President RoseAnn Branda, who would go on to become a partner with Carone at Abrams Fensterman. Ethan Gerber, who would also eventually join Abrams Fensterman as a partner, talked him into becoming a board member and eventually Rebecca Rose Woodland asked him to become an officer.

“I may say yes a little too quickly, but the truth of the manner is that starting with RoseAnne, then Ethan, these were relationships that I already had but grew much deeper because of my involvement with the bar association and the Columbian Lawyers Association,” Carone said.

“I like being a part of an organization, I like being a part of the Brooklyn Democratic Party, the Brooklyn Bar Association, Abrams Fensterman, the Marine Corp,” he continued. “There is nothing more rewarding than building something collaboratively because life is meant to be shared.”

An important aspect of Carone’s team effort comes in the form of his wife, Diana Carone, who Howard Fensterman referred to as a “true partner.” Diana is known not only for supporting Frank from behind the scenes, but for taking an active role in legal and political events.

“When you go into their home for an event, Diana is the consummate hostess and her culinary abilities are tremendous,” Fensterman said. “I would rather eat her cooking than eat in any restaurant in New York. And she puts up with him going out four or five nights a week sometimes. Frank couldn’t have a better partner in his life, personally and professionally as well.”

 

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