Bay Ridge Lawyers will head to Atlantic City for CLE seminar

March 28, 2022 Robert Abruzzese, Brooklyn Daily Eagle

Judge Lawrence Knipel, administrative judge of the Kings County Supreme Court, Civil Term.
Photo: Rob Abruzzese/Brooklyn Eagle

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After a brief delay, the Bay Ridge Lawyers Association is finally ready to go to Atlantic City, where it will host its annual winter seminar from April 28 until the 29th.

While the group had originally hoped to have gone earlier in March, the delay due to COVID concerns did not keep the group from getting an impressive slate of speakers that includes Hon. Lawrence Knipel, the administrative judge of the Kings County Supreme Court, Civil Term.

Justice Knipel will give a lecture titled “Brooklyn Courts in Transition,” where he will discuss the major changes in law and practice that have occurred at the courthouse as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Hon. Mark Partnow.
Eagle photo by Rob Abruzzese

Judge Knipel will be joined by two other judges during the seminar — Hon. Mark Partnow, who will give a lecture titled, “Law and Practice at the Courthouse,” and Hon. Janet McFarland, whose lecture is titled, “Family Court 101.”

The other speakers will be familiar to many in the legal community — John Dalli, who will lecture on nursing home litigation, Dean Delianites, who will cover dispositions in the virtual world, and Jaime Lathrop, who will cover ethical considerations in residential real estate transactions.

Hon. Janet McFarland.
Eagle photo by Rob Abruzzese

All of those lectures will take place on Friday, April 29 from noon until 5 p.m. They will be bookended by a cocktail party at Cuba Libre on Thursday night and dinner at The Palm on Friday night.

President Will Gillen thanked past Presidents Mary Ann Stathopoulos and Steve Chiaino for helping to plan the event. He said that with all of the rescheduling, the pair went above and beyond to make sure the program came together.

Prior to the winter seminar, the Bay Ridge Lawyers will host its regular monthly meeting at Mama Rao’s in Dyker Heights on Wednesday, March 30 at 6 p.m. The speaker during that meeting will be Sunjay Matthews, head of legal at DAZN Group, who will lecture on recent trends in the sports media landscape.

Lunch with a Judge

Hon. Consuelo Mallafré Melendez.
Eagle photo by Rob Abruzzese

The Brooklyn Bar Association and the Brooklyn Women’s Bar Association both are continuing to host monthly events with judges that have given members unprecedented access at a time of great uncertainty in the courts.

The BWBA has long maintained its regular “Lunch with a Judge” program for years now and it never took a break even during the height of COVID thanks to then president Natoya McGhie.

Kings County Surrogate Judge Rosemarie Montalbano
Eagle photo by Rob Abruzzese

The event continues on Tuesday, April 12 at 1 p.m. when the BWBA hosts Hon. Consuelo Mallafré Melendez, a justice of the Kings County Supreme Court.

More recently, the BBA has hosted similar events over the last year. Most recently, the BBA hosted Hon. Elizabeth Stong, a judge in the EDNY bankruptcy court.

The BBA has two future virtual sit-downs with Brooklyn judges coming up — the next one will be with Hon. Rosemarie Montalbano, from the Kings County Surrogate’s Court. Judge Montalbano is a regular at the BBA’s monthly Trusts & Estates Section and Surrogate’s Court meetings so members are familiar with her, but this event will give her a dedicated hour to address concerns in her courthouse and answer questions.

The History and Current Status of Abortion Rights

Brooklyn Law School professor Susan Herman.
Wikimedia photo by Richard Corman

On Tuesday, March 29 at 6 p.m., the BBA is hosting a pair of Brooklyn Law School professors, Susan Herman and Shaakirrah Sanders, who will give a lecture titled, “The History and Current Status of Supreme Court Precedent on Abortion Rights.”

Organized by Justice Katherine Levine and the Constitutional Law Committee, the two professors will examine U.S. Supreme Court cases to discuss the history of abortion rights, its current status, and they will also talk a little bit about where it might go.

This continuing legal education seminar is open to all attorneys and is worth 1.5 CLE credits.

Later that week, on Thursday, March 31 at 1 p.m., the BBA will host a free-for-members event called, “Tips and Tricks for Using LinkedIn to Promote Your Business.” Sign up for either of these events on our website — BrooklynBar.org.

The Franklin H. Williams Judicial Commission to Discuss Nomination of Hon. Ketanji Brown Jackson

The Franklin H. Williams Judicial Commission and its Second Judicial District Advisory Group will celebrate Women’s History Month with a discussion titled, “Standing on the Shoulders of Judge Constance Baker Motley: The Historic Nomination of Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson to the U.S. Supreme Court.”

The event will feature opening remarks by Hon. Joanne Quinones, who serves as the FHW commissioner, and Letitia James, the NYS attorney general. It will be moderated by Hon. Deborah Dowling, associate justice of the Appellate Division, Second Department. The panelists include Jennifer Jones Austin, an attorney with the Federation of Protestant Welfare Agencies, and Prof. Natalie Gomez-Velez, from the CUNY School of Law.

Robert Abruzzese is the former Legal Editor of the Brooklyn Daily Eagle and the current Director of Member Services at the Brooklyn Bar Association. Now as a legal columnist for the Eagle, Abruzzese writes about the BBA and the local legal community. For information about joining the Brooklyn Bar Association, you can reach him via email at [email protected].