No CLE but Bay Ridge Lawyers will meet via Zoom this month

April 28, 2020 Rob Abruzzese

Members of the Brooklyn Bar Association’s Membership and Diversity committees got together on Thursday night to discuss potential future events. The two groups normally join forces to do community service around Brooklyn. With PAUSE regulations in effect, they brainstormed ways they could still help Brooklynites. Pictured from top left: Joy Thompson, president-elect of the Women’s Bar Association of the State of New York, Hon. Joanne Quinones, Jen Bryan. Middle row from left: Executive Director Avery Eli Okin, Anthony Vaughn, Jr., and Joseph Kenny. Bottom row: Kwok Kei Ng, left, and Turquoise Haskin. Screenshot via Zoom

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The Bay Ridge Lawyers Association was created by a group of attorneys from the neighborhood who would get together once a month to discuss some of the issues they faced in the courts.

Today, the group is one of the most prestigious local bar associations in New York and continues to hold monthly meetings where they provide continuing legal education (CLE) seminars to keep their members up to date on the latest changes to the law.

Since large gatherings have been banned due to the coronavirus pandemic, the Bay Ridge Lawyers, like so many other bar associations, have been on hiatus. These lawyers just don’t like staying apart, though.

The Bay Ridge Lawyers Association announced that even though it won’t have its customary monthly CLE meeting again this month, it will host a Zoom meeting for members on Wednesday, April 29. Pictured from left: William Gillen, President Mary Ann Stathopoulos, immediate past president Joseph Vasile, Dominic Famulari and Adam Kalish. Photo: Rob Abruzzese/Brooklyn Eagle

Earlier in the month, members discussed, via videoconferencing and old-fashioned emails, ways in which they could help the local community at a time when so many are struggling with health-related issues and unemployment. The group decided that it would donate food from the local restaurant Kettle Black to the Lutheran Medical Center emergency room staff.

The BRLA canceled its CLE in March, and Justice Matthew D’Emic, administrative judge of the Supreme Court, Criminal Term, was expected to give a CLE this month that had to be canceled too.

Even without the CLE, the group plans on meeting this month anyway. They’re doing it via Zoom instead of over dinner at Mama Rao’s like usual.

Kettle Black thanked the Bay Ridge Lawyers Association for buying food that was donated to the staff at Lutheran Hospital. Photo: @KettleBlackBar via Instagram

“Social distancing requirements prevent us from gathering in person,” said corresponding secretary Mario Romano. “Many of our members have reached out to inquire about everyone’s well-being. We’ve decided to set up a video non-CLE meeting using the Zoom app. This way we can all get together from our homes to see each other, catch up and maybe even enjoy a cocktail together.”

The meeting will take place on Wednesday, April 29 at 7:15 p.m. To take part in the meeting, attorneys should contact Romano or an officer of the association so they can get the email invite. There is no charge, but also no CLE credit since it’s a non-lecture meeting.

“It will be great to see everyone to see how we are all holding up and to discuss the future,” Romano said.