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Judge Lillian Wan makes pitch for lawyers to join bar associations

Brooklyn Women’s Bar making push to change legislation

January 17, 2018 By Rob Abruzzese, Legal Editor Brooklyn Daily Eagle
Judge Lillian Wan (left), of Brooklyn’s Family Court, was the speaker at the Brooklyn Women’s Bar Association’s Lunch with a Judge event. Judge Wan is pictured here with BWBA President Michele Mirman (center) and Hon. Sylvia Ash (right). Eagle photo by Rob Abruzzese
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Judge Lillian Wan, who sits in Brooklyn Family Court, didn’t join a bar association until she was nine years into her legal career and she doesn’t want to see other attorneys making the same mistake.

That was the message Wan brought with her to the Brooklyn Women’s Bar Association’s (BWBA) Lunch with a Judge event on at the Family Court on Tuesday, where many young attorneys sat in with members and judges as they listened to her share her story.

“I say it all the time that I wish I had joined a bar association sooner, but I was never encouraged to,” she said. “It provides you with a network of lawyers, judges and to attend programs like CLEs [continuing legal education] and other events. It gives you an opportunity to learn about different areas of the law.

“Even if you are the type of person who is exhausted by the end of the day and just wants to go home and watch TV, I still encourage you because it makes you a better lawyer,” Wan continued.

Wan, the daughter of Chinese immigrants, was born in Flushing, Queens, and raised in Nassau County. She attended Binghamton University before going to Albany Law School. After spending nine years at NYC’s Administration for Child Services, she worked for a year in the Surrogate’s Court before she was appointed to be a judge in the Bronx Family Court in July 2012.

She admitted that she never thought about becoming a judge until she began to work with Judge Margarita Lopez Torres. It was through Lopez Torres’ guidance that she realized how rewarding being a judge could be and she was the one who encouraged Wan to become involved with the bar association.

“I was interested in the court system, but never once did I think that I would become a judge,” Wan said. “I thought it wasn’t something that I could do, or wanted to do, and I thought that judges were picked out of the sky. I had no connections.”

Michele Mirman, BWBA president, also made a pitch to the many non-member attorneys in attendance that they should join the group. She pointed out that through BWBA’s parent organization and the Women’s Bar Association for the State of New York (WBASNY), the group has been pushing for changes to the law to improve conditions for women and that their presence within the group could only help.

“We’re trying to grow our organization so that we have more delegates within the state bar,” Mirman explained. “We have seven now, but we’re close to having eight and we think that we could eventually get nine or 10.

“That would really help us counterbalance some of the more conservative upstate chapters,” Mirman continued. “That way we could better fight for an extension to the statute of limitations on sexual assault cases, or more income equality.”

BWBA has a series of CLEs coming up that are dedicated towards helping women in their professional lives. On Thursday, Jan. 25, the group will meet at Geraldo’s Cafe in Brooklyn Law School for a seminar on learning how to speak out. On Jan. 30 another CLE will be held on starting your own practice and on Feb. 8 another on investing money properly.

“This year is extremely important to get involved,” Mirman said. “We now have the #MeToo movement; we have questions about income equality. This could be a really big banner year for women if we can get our agenda — which is shared with so many women — through.”

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