NYCLA to Host Public Service Awards Reception on September 28

 

NYCLA to Host Public Service Awards Reception on September 28

 

September 15, 2010 – New York, NY – The New York County Lawyers’ Association (NYCLA) will host its annual Public Service Awards reception on Tuesday, September 28 at the NYCLA Home of Law, 14 Vesey Street, at 6:00 PM. Hon. Loretta A. Preska, Chief Judge, United States District Court, Southern District of New York, will be the special guest speaker at the event, which recognizes lawyers in the public sector who have distinguished themselves as role models, innovators and problem solvers of complex legal issues. NYCLA President James B. Kobak Jr. and Past President Catherine A. Christian, who chairs NYCLA’s Public Service Awards Committee, will be among those presenting awards to the six public sector attorneys. In addition, the NYCLA Criminal Justice Section, chaired by Keith Schmidt and Alison Wilkey, will present the 2010 Criminal Justice Public Service Fellowships, awarded on the basis of an essay competition, to two attorneys who practice criminal law in the public sector. The reception is open to NYCLA members or by invitation only.

 

Public Service Awardees

The public sector attorneys who will be honored are: Pamela K. Chen, chief, Civil Rights Unit, Criminal Division, U.S. Attorney’s Office, Eastern District of New York; Steven Stein Cushman, chief, Contract and Real Estate Division, The City of New York Law Department; Karen Hambrick, supervising attorney, Harlem Community Law Office, Civil Practice, The Legal Aid Society; Barbara K. Hathaway, assistant attorney general and special litigation counsel, New York State Attorney General’s Office; Joan Illuzi-Orbon, assistant district attorney, chief, Hate Crimes Unit, District Attorney’s Office, County of New York; and Susan Hofkin Salomon, senior litigation specialist, Center for Appellate Litigation.

 

2010 Criminal Justice Public Service Fellowship Awardees

Winners of the Criminal Justice Section’s 2010 Public Service Fellowships are: Michael Albanese, assistant district attorney, New York County District Attorney’s Office, and Benjamin West, staff attorney, The Legal Aid Society, Criminal Defense Division, New York County. This year’s essay question was: “Is NYPD’s Stop-and-Frisk policy effective preventative policing or is it discriminatory and unconstitutional?”

 

The New York County Lawyers’ Association (www.nycla.org) was founded in 1908 as the first major bar association in the country that admitted members without regard to race, ethnicity, religion, gender or sexual identity. Since its inception, it has pioneered some of the most far-reaching and tangible reforms in American jurisprudence and has continuously played an active role in legal developments and public policy.

 

# # #