Brooklyn Bar Association will honor Arthur Aidala at annual dinner

MILL BASIN — The Brooklyn Bar Association Foundation’s annual dinner is finally back and this year’s should be a good one as it is honoring past president Arthur Aidala at El Caribe in Mill Basin on Monday, Dec. 5.

Aidala, who was president of the BBA from 2015 to 2016, will receive the President’s Award.

There will be three other honorees that night including Hon. Larry Martin, justice of the Kings County Supreme Court, who will receive the Distinguished Judicial Service Award, Hemalee Patel, general counsel for the NYC Board of Elections, who will receive the Vivian H. Agress Trailblazer Award, and Hon. Bruce Balter, a retired justice of the Kings County Supreme Court, who will receive the Brooklyn Barrister Special Recognition Award.

The Brooklyn Bar Association Foundation had hosted an annual dinner every year in December since its 100th anniversary until COVID forced it to cancel in 2020 and again in 2021. It will finally return this year, however, instead of being held at the New York Marriott at the Brooklyn Bridge in Downtown Brooklyn it has been moved to Mill Basin.

The return of the annual dinner will allow the BBA to return to normalcy following the pandemic. The dinner is the biggest fundraiser for the Foundation, which is the BBA’s philanthropic arm that normally is very active in giving to charities and local community organizations.

Now that the BBA can host the annual dinner again, there is hope that it will revive the annual Hon. Theodore T. Jones Jr., Memorial Scholarship that was being given out each year to a Brooklyn Law School student. That program was started in 2016 by past president Rebecca Rose Woodland, but it paused due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

In addition to the four honorees, the BBA will also take a moment to recognize the service and accomplishments of the judges who have retired since COVID or are planning to retire this year.

Those judges include Hon. Loren Baily-Schiffman, Hon. Edgar Walker, Hon. Marsha Steinhardt, Hon. Bruce Balter, Hon. Mark Dwyer, Hon. Michelle Weston, Hon. Deborah Dowling, and Hon. Paul Wooten.

Of course, a moment of silence and special recognition will be held for the judges who Brooklyn has lost since 2020 including Hon. Johnny Lee Baynes, Hon. Noach Dear, Hon. Michael Feinberg, Hon. Joseph Slavin, Hon. Gerard Rosenberg, and Hon. William Miller.

Marshall Kaplan and John E. Murphy, two past presidents who have recently passed will also be recognized.

Aidala is the managing partner of the law firm Aidala Bertuna & Kamins, which handles criminal cases, civil litigation, and corporate matters. He has made a name for himself through his television appearances as a legal analyst on Fox News and by representing high-profile clients such as Lawrence Taylor and Harvey Weinstein. He currently hosts The Arthur Aidala Power Hour radio show on weekdays at 6 P.M. on AM970.

The BBA has perhaps never been more active in the past decade than the year Aidala was president. He hosted events at 123 Remsen Street, brought approximately 35 members on a trip to Cuba, renovated the building, and hosted U.S. Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito for an intimate continuing legal education discussion.

Aidala also helped to raise a lot of money for the Foundation as president by convincing Lawrence Taylor and former Mayor Rudy Guiliani to participate in the annual Justice Theodore T. Jones Memorial Golf Outing. Under Aidala’s leadership, the BBA established the LGTBQ+ Committee, which is chaired by Christina Golkin.