Come for the Golf Outing, Stay for the Dinner

April 4, 2022 Robert Abruzzese, Brooklyn Daily Eagle

BWBA President Madeline Kirton (right) meets with a pair of Brooklyn Law School students during the association’s Mentor Jet program that was co-sponsored by the National Association of Women Judges. Photo courtesy of NAWJ-NY Chapter

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The Brooklyn Bar Association is gearing up for the 10th Anniversary of the Hon. Theodore T. Jones, Jr., Memorial Golf Outing, which will be held on Monday, May 2 at Colonia Country Club in New Jersey.

The setting, a country club in New Jersey, may seem odd for many. However, it was Justice Jones’ favorite club, and one where he regularly met other Brooklyn Bar Association members for a round of golf, since it is less than 30 miles away.

This year, for the first time in the 10-year history of the event, there will be an awards dinner held afterward. Even if you don’t golf, there are tickets available to join the golfers after their round. Not only will there be food, but the BBA is hoping to honor one of the members that helped to organize the event.

Judge Jones began his life growing up in Brooklyn before he off went to Hampton University in Virginia, where he graduated in 1965. After undergraduate college, Jones went to fight in the Vietnam War, where he attained the rank of captain, before he eventually came home to attend St. John’s University School of Law.

Justice Jones started his legal career as a public defender for the Legal Aid Society in Bedford-Stuyvesant. He went on to serve as a law secretary to Hon. Howard A. Jones, and in 1975 he started a private practice with an office on Fulton Street before he in due course moved to 16 Court St.

After nearly 15 years in private practice, Justice Jones finally was elected to serve in the New York Supreme Court in 1989 and was re-elected in 2003. While serving as a trial judge, Jones presided over the Juvenile Offender Part. In 2006, Justice Jones was appointed as the administrative judge of the Kings County Supreme Court, Civil Term, a position currently held by Hon. Lawrence Knipel.

Hon. Theodore “Ted” Jones is remembered every year by the Brooklyn Bar Association during an annual golf outing that is held in his name. This year the BBA will host an awards dinner after the event. Tickets for the golf outing on May 2 can be purchased on the Brooklyn Bar Association’s website. Tickets for the dinner can be purchased separately, and there will be a bus available at the courthouse to take guests to the golf course.
Eagle file photo

Finally, in December 2006, Justice Jones was appointed to the New York State Court of Appeals. During his time on that bench, Jones was also appointed to be the chair of the court’s Diversity Committee, and is known for having worked hard to promote diversity within the courts.

While Justice Jones is best known for his time on the bench, he led a very active life as well, going back to the days when his family owned and operated a summer camp in Upstate New York that he regularly attended. This is where his love of golf came from that he spread with his infectious enthusiasm to members of the BBA, who still fondly remember spending time on the links with him.

This legacy is the reason why the Brooklyn Bar Association is willing, at least for one day, to leave the borough to carry on the name of “Brooklyn’s Prodigal Son.”

Tickets for the golf outing are on sale and are nearly sold out. If you are interested in attending, please register at www.BrooklynBar.org.

Brooklyn’s Women Lead The Way With Speed Networking Event

The Brooklyn Women’s Bar Association and the National Association of Women Judges, New York Chapter, held a Mentor Jet program on Monday, March 28 at Brooklyn Law School.

The program included speed mentoring and speed networking and allowed 30 law school students to mingle and get advice from 15 of the borough’s brightest attorneys and jurists.

Participating mentors included BWBA President Madeline Kirton, immediate past president Natoya McGhie, Surrogate Judge Rosemarie Montalbano, Supervising Judge of Brooklyn Housing Court Cheryl Gonzales, Hon. Genine Edwards, Hon. Odessa Kennedy, Hon. Connie Mallafre Melendez and Hon. Lillian Wan; and attorneys Danielle Ciraola, Betsey Jean-Jacques, Alice Liang, Raquel Miranda, Angelicque Moreno, Jovia Radix and Joy Thompson.

“Among its many purposes, NAWJ seeks to develop judicial leaders, to increase the number of women on the bench, and to provide networking opportunities for law students to engage and interact with members of the bench and bar,” said Hon. Joanne Quinones. “Mentor Jet was designed to help attain all of those goals by providing law students with informal mentoring and exposing them to a variety of practice areas and careers in the law, both traditional and non-traditional.”

The event consisted of 15 sessions of five-minutes each. Every five minutes the mentors met with two students so that each student got to meet every mentor at the event.

Aging in the Community: A Free Elder Law Event

On Thursday, April 7, the Brooklyn Bar Association’s Foundation Law Committee is hosting “Aging in the Community: How to Plan Ahead.” It’s a one-and-a-half-hour lecture by Fern Finkel and Daniel Miller, co-chairs of the committee, and is free and open to members, non-members and non-lawyers.

The event has been a regular one for the Brooklyn Bar Association over the years, but the first time the association has held it since the pandemic began in 2020.

BWBA and NAWJ members (from left): Hon. Cheryl Gonzales, Hon. Rosemarie Montalbano, Hon. Lillian Wan, Angelicque Moreno, Hon. Odessa Kennedy, Hon. Genine Edwards, Hon. Joanne Quinones, Alice Liang, Hon. Connie Mallfre Melendez, Raquel Miranda, Madeline Kirton, Joy Thompson and Betsey Jean-Jacques. Not pictured are Jovia Radix, Natoya McGhie and Danielle Ciraola.
Photo courtesy of NAWJ-NY Chapter

While it does not qualify for continuing legal education credit, the event does give advice on financial advance directives, health care advance directives, financing long-term care, trusts, and asset protection.

The Brooklyn Bar Association’s Foundation Law Committee is the community-oriented part of the bar association. It routinely holds free events for the public on various issues including criminal know-your-rights events.

Just last month the Foundation Law Committee hosted, “Consumer Debt and Bankruptcy: The Process, Defenses, and Options” with President-Elect Richard Klass. There is a video from that event so if you would like to watch it please contact Robert Abruzzese at [email protected].

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].