Accolades
Attorneys Honored for Service
May 08, 2009
The New York State Bar Association has announced the winners of its 2009 President's Pro Bono Service Awards. The following were recognized for their dedication and commitment in pro bono service:
• Ronald Abramson, Hughes, Hubbard & Reed, First District award;
• Kim Zinke, Brooklyn Bar Association Volunteer Lawyers Project, Second District;
• Jena Rotheim, Nixon Peabody, Third District;
• Cheryl L. Maxwell, Law Office of Cheryl Maxwell, Fourth District;
• Edward McArdle, New York State Department of Law, Fifth District;
• Thomas Miller, Law Office of Thomas Miller, Sixth District;
• Jane Garbiele, Empire Justice Center; Seventh District;
• Barbara R. Ridall, Bulan Chiari Horwtiz & Ilecki, Eight District;
• Simon Haysom, Simon Haysom LLC, Ninth District;
• Charles J. Sherman, Volunteer Lawyers Project of Nassau/Suffolk Law Services Committee Inc., Tenth District;
• Nicholas DeCesare, Queens Volunteer Lawyers Project; Eleventh District;
• Isabelle L. Curro, inMotion, Twelfth District;
• Jennifer P. Stergion, Erie County Bar Association Volunteers Lawyers Project, Young Lawyer Award;
• Justice Roert J. Nicholson, Oswego County Supreme Court, Senior Lawyer Award;
• Kaye Scholer, Large Law Firm Award;
• DelBello Donnellan Weingarten Wise & Wiederkehr, Small and Mid-Size Law Firm Award;
• Siana McLean, State University of New York at Buffalo Law School, Law Student Award;
• Syracuse University College of Law Pro Bono Bankruptcy Practice Group, Law School Group Award;
• Legal Department of IBM; In-House Counsel Award.
The New York City Bar Association next week will award its 20th Annual Legal Services Awards to four attorneys and one paralegal.
The honorees, who are recognized for their "outstanding civil legal assistance to New York's poor," are Kim Barnett, staff attorney at Legal Services Fund; Lourdes Rodriguez Mo, supervising attorney at Northern Manhattan Improvement Corp.; Lisa Sbrana, supervising attorney in the Health Law Unit of the Legal Aid Society; attorney Oscar S. Straus II, director of the Elderly Project, Volunteers of Legal Service; and Una Leonora Perkins, a paralegal at MFY Legal Services Inc.,
The awards will be presented by Southern District Bankruptcy Judge Allan Gropper on May 14 at the bar group's headquarters.
At its 29th Annual Mid-Year Conference, the National Bar Association honored its 2009 Gertrude E. Rush recipients. Of the four honorees, two were based in New York: civil rights attorney Jeff L. Greenup and Judge Theodore T. Jones of the Court of Appeals.
The award was established in 2003 to recognize a lawyer who "manifests the pioneering spirit of Gertrude Rush," co-founder of the National Bar and first black woman to be admitted to practice law in Iowa in 1918, according to the association.
Fulbright & Jaworski partner Linda L. Addison has been named a recipient of the 2009 Margaret Brent Women Lawyers of Achievement Award, an honor given by the American Bar Association recognizing the accomplishments of lawyers who have "paved the way to success for other women."
In an effort to offer an institution of leadership for women lawyers, Ms. Addison, this year's sole New York-based honoree, co-founded the Center for Women in Law at the University of Texas School of Law in 2008. She was also the first woman on Fulbright's six-person executive committee, a position she continues to hold.
Established in 1991 by the ABA Commission on Women in the Profession, the award is named for the first woman lawyer in America. The Brent Award is given annually to five women lawyers who have excelled in their field.
The Nassau County Bar Association will honor Administrative Judge Anthony Marano with the Distinguished Service Medallion at the group's 110th annual dinner-dance tomorrow at the Long Island Marriott, Uniondale.
Named administrative judge in 2004, Judge Marano directly supervises nearly 90 judges and more than 1,100 non-judicial employees throughout the Nassau County Court System.
Robert J. Jossen, a partner at Dechert, will be honored by the Jewish Theological Seminary with its Judge Simon H. Rifkind Award on May 12.
A fellow of the American College of Trial Lawyers, Mr. Jossen served as president of Temple Israel Center of White Plains from 2004-2007. For nearly 20 years, he has served as the general counsel to the Rabbinical Assembly of the Conservative Movement, and has also been a member of the Rabbinical School Advisory Board. Each year, he conducts seminars with the graduating class of rabbinical students on confidentiality, counseling and contracts.
The award's namesake, Judge Rifkind, served on the seminary's board from 1963 until 1972. It was first presented in 1996.
Pace Law School dean Richard Ottinger has been awarded the Environmental Protection Agency's highest honor presented to the public: the EPA Environmental Quality Award.
Mr. Ottinger was the only attorney in a group of 26 individuals and organizations honored across the state by the EPA.
Mr. Ottinger, who came to Pace Law after retiring from Congress in 1984, founded the Pace Energy and Climate Center, during his tenure as co-director of the Center for Environmental Legal Studies at Pace.
The JAMS Foundation has presented its first-ever Warren Knight Award to Effective Alternative in Reconciliation Services (EARS).
The award was presented by Judge Warren Knight of the California Superior Court last month at the spring conference of the American Bar Association's Section on Dispute Resolution.
Bronx-based EARS provides violence prevention and intervention services to youths in New York City schools and to community-based organizations. The Knight Award is presented to an organization that exemplifies the creative use of alternative dispute resolution to benefit the community.
Accolades reports on special recognition given to attorneys at law firms, in government and at social agencies. Submit items to Scott.Pegram@incisivemedia.com.
