Court Attorney Referee Hammond gives update on Brooklyn Surrogate’s Court

February 9, 2023 Rob Abruzzese

From left: Brian Chin, Stephen Chiaino, Joseph Reilly, Peter Ferraiuolo, and Adam Kalish. Eagle photos by Mario Belluomo

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DYKER HEIGHTS — The Bay Ridge Lawyers Association held its monthly meeting on Jan. 25 at Mama Rao’s in Dyker Heights where Cynthia Hammond, a court-attorney referee from the Kings County Surrogate’s Court gave a continuing legal education lecture.

Hammond, a 14-year veteran of the Surrogate’s Court, is the supervising court attorney-referee for Hon. Rosemarie Montalbano’s law department.

Prior to landing her job with the courts, Hammon attended the College of William and Mary, and of the University of South Carolina Law School, where she was Associate Editor-in-Chief of the Law Review. After school, she worked as an associate at LeBouef, Lamb, Leiby & MacRae, which focused on corporate finance matters. She also served as a volunteer appellate attorney for the NAACP Legal Defense Fund, taking death penalty cases in Georgia and Louisiana.

From left: Yolanda Guadagnoli, Adam Kalish, Michael Benjamin, Santorini Rivera, and President Dominic Famulari.

Hammond’s speech was entitled, “Anatomy of Kings County Surrogate’s Court in 2023”. During the one-hour lecture, she discussed what happened to the Surrogate’s Court during the pandemic, how it adjusted to the next 1,019 days, and the ongoing changes that have taken place.

“We were very fortunate to have Cynthia Hammond as our CLE presenter,” said Dominic Famulari, president of the BRLA. “Ms. Hammond has been a great friend to the Surrogate’s Court practitioners over the years and her talents as the Chair of Surrogate Montalbano’s law department are a tremendous asset to the Court, the public and the Bar.”

Specifically, she helped lawyers understand some of the new technology and website developments, how initial conferences are handled today, plus follow up conferences, motion protocols and pre-trial conferences.

President Dominic Famulari presents Cynthia Hammond with a certificate for presenting a continuing legal education seminar entitled, “Anatomy of Kings County Surrogate’s Court in 2023” at this month’s Bay Ridge Lawyers Association meeting.
Eagle photos by Mario Belluomo

Of course, the Bay Ridge Lawyers meetings always attract a fairly large contingent of judges at its monthly meetings so Hon. Rosemarie Montalbano and acting Surrogate Judge Bernard Graham were both in attendance and were available to answer questions during and after the lecture.

“It was an added benefit to have both Surrogate Montalbano as well as Acting Surrogate Graham in attendance,” Famulari said. “Their contributions to the program and discussion were insightful and of great help to the association. It was encouraging to observe their collegiality and camaraderie. It was a stellar event.”