Page 11 - NYLS Magazine • 2015 • Vol. 34, No. 1

Founded in 1838, it is the resting place
of many New York luminaries, including DeWitt Clinton, Rev. Henry Ward Beecher, Horace Greeley, William Magear (“Boss”) Tweed, Leonard Bernstein, and Jean Michel Basquiat.
on the bench in brooklyn
Many NYLS graduates have gone on to serve on the bench, and Brooklyn boasts several NYLS judges. The Honorable Joan Azrack ’79 served for 24 years as a U.S. Magistrate Judge in the Eastern District of New York Courthouse on Cadman Plaza in Brooklyn before President Obama nominated her, and the Senate confirmed her, as U.S. District Court Judge in that district. She now serves in Central Islip and Brooklyn.
Another well-known jurist is Justice Arthur Schack ’80 of Kings County Supreme Court. Justice Schack served as chair of Community Board 10 and was counsel to the Major League Baseball Players Association before his election to the Civil Court in 1998. He was elected to the Kings County Supreme Court in 2003. He is widely cited in the local press and was featured in an August 2009 New York Times article for dismissing 46 out of 102 foreclosure motions that came before him over two years because of erroneous paperwork. “If you are going to take away someone’s house, everything should be legal and correct,” he said in the Times article. “I’m a strange guy—I don’t want to put a family on the street unless it’s legitimate.”
Also serving on the bench is Acting Justice Loren Baily-Schiffman ’77 of Kings County Supreme Court. Justice Baily-Schiffman had her own private practice until 1997, when she served as an attorney for the Brooklyn Branch of Legal Services of New York. She was elected to the New York City Civil Court of Kings County in 1999, re-elected in 2009, and appointed Acting Justice in 2009. Justice Baily-Schiffman regularly hires NYLS students to serve externships
in her chambers. She was also NYLS’s 2009 Convocation speaker for first-year students.
Several other NYLS alumni serve on the bench in Brooklyn. They include: Hon. Susan Avery ’91, Judge, New York City Housing
Justice Martin M. Solomon ’75 of Kings County Supreme Court
Justice Arthur Schack ’80 of Kings County Supreme Court
Court; Hon. Vincent Del Giudice ’80, Justice, Kings County Supreme Court; Hon. Carolyn Demarest ’72, Justice, Kings County Supreme Court; Hon. Cenceria Edwards ’94, Judge, Kings County Civil Court; Hon. Elizabeth Foley ’83, Justice, Kings County Supreme Court; Hon. Diana Johnson ’82, Judge,
Kings County Surrogate’s Court; Hon. Ingrid Joseph ’82, Judge, Kings County Civil Court; Hon. Laurie Lau ’82, Judge, New York City Housing Court; and Justice Solomon, who attended the staged reading of The Believers.
Justice Loren Baily-Schiffman ’77 of Kings County Supreme Court
founding member of Held, Held & Held, which focuses on personal injury but also works in real estate, commercial misconduct, and trusts and estates. Mr. Held works with his daughters Jennifer and Alyssa ’94. He
is a former president of the NYLS Alumni Association.
Another NYLS graduate prominent in Brooklyn is Helene Blank ’77, President of the Brooklyn Women’s Bar Association and partner at personal injury firm Blank & Star.
Two alumnae have made contributions to the visual arts scene in Brooklyn. Clover Barrett ’85 is a partner at Clover Barrett & Associates practicing family law, trusts and estates law, and bankruptcy. She also runs Clover’s Fine Art Gallery in Downtown Brooklyn. The gallery exhibits artwork by both emerging
and established artists and has a particular focus on the art and artists of the Caribbean diaspora and heritage. Deborah Held ’76, who was honored at the NYLS Gala in November 2014, is a visual artist whose paintings have been exhibited in a gallery in Brooklyn.
an ongoing affiliation
As Brooklyn continues to flourish as a
center for arts, entertainment, and artisanal businesses, as well as the practice of law, its connections to NYLS promise to grow even more intertwined. The New Innovation Center for Law and Technology will have all the tools to help Brooklyn entrepreneurs get started and to help Brooklyn artists protect their intellectual property. Brooklynites
will continue to cross the East River to
lower Manhattan to a get an excellent legal education in the heart of the City’s legal, government, financial, and emerging tech centers. And graduates will continue to cross the river back to Brooklyn to use their newly acquired skills to build careers in the borough they love. •
public sector and
in-house Counsel
In addition, several NYLS alumni hold prominent positions in the public sector. They include Gerianne Abriano ’93, Bureau Chief of the Brooklyn District Attorney’s Office; John Sweeney ’88, Division Chief, Workers’ Compensation, in the Brooklyn office of the New York City Corporation Counsel; and Martin Coffey ’75, Assistant U.S. Attorney in the Eastern District of New York. Working in the public interest sector
is Gary Stone ’81, Staff Attorney, at South Brooklyn Legal Services.
Notable alumni who work in-house
at corporations or not-for-profit organizations include Shawn Fabian ’06, Chief Counsel of Labor and Employee Relations, New York Methodist Hospital; Sheila Namm ’95, Vice President, Professional Affairs, Maimonides Medical Center; Stephanie Shepard ’85, Director
of Integrated Health, National Grid;
and Christy Nixon ’08, Vice President and Assistant General Counsel, JPMorgan Chase.
private practice
Prominent NYLS alumni in private practice in Brooklyn include Edward Held ’66, the
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