PHOTO BY TEQUILA MINSKY
Betty E. Staton, a retired Family Court judge and president of Brooklyn
Legal Services, received the National Bar Association’s Judicial
Council’s Thurgood Marshall Award.
Attorney Sanford Rubenstein was honored with the National Bar Association’s
Chair’s Award for Civil Rights.
National Bar Association honors legal leaders
BY TEQUILA MINSKY
During the National Bar Association’s
Thurgood Marshall
Judicial Awards Luncheon at
the Sheraton New York Times Square
on July 23, its Judicial Council, with
200-some lawyers and judges attending,
honored fi ve judges, as well as a
New York civil-rights and social-justice
attorney.
The National Bar Association is the
nation’s oldest and largest national
network of predominantly African-
American attorneys and judges. It represents
the interests of 65,000 lawyers,
judges, law professors and law students
throughout the United States and
around the world. The organization was
formed in 1925 when fi ve of its founding
members were denied membership
to the American Bar Association.
PHOTO BY TEQUILA MINSKY
At its 48th annual meeting, two local
legal professionals were honored
among this year’s honorees.
Retired Judge Betty E. Staton received
the Thurgood Marshall Award.
As a New York University School of
Law student, Staton was always advocating
to bring more black and Latino
students into the law profession. Staton
began her legal career in 1979 as
a staff attorney at Bedford Stuyvesant
Community Legal Services, leaving
eight years later, to form with two other
African-American women the fi rst
African-American female partnership
in the country. Four years later, Mayor
David Dinkins appointed her to New
York State Family Court, on which she
served for almost 20 years. On mandatory
retirement, she returned as project
director to B.S.C.L.S., which merged
in 2012 with two other legal services
Attorney Sanford Rubenstein told judges among the National Bar Association
members at the awards ceremony to maintain their independence,
and urged young lawyers to advocate on behalf of victims.
to form Brooklyn Legal Services, of
which she now is president.
Attorney Sanford Rubenstein, one
of the city’s top advocates for victim’s
rights in personal injury, medical malpractice
and civil rights matters, received
the National Bar Association’s
Chair’s Award for Civil Rights. He was
recommended for this award by a Civil
Court judge based on his work for civil
rights.
Rubenstein, who lives in Brooklyn,
has represented numerous victims and
families of victims of police brutality
and wrongdoing in New York City, including
Abner Louima, sodomized in a
police precinct by a New York Police
Department offi cer; the family of Sean
Bell, who was killed in a police shooting
the night before his wedding; the
estate of Kalief Browder, who killed
himself after spending 400 days in solitary
PHOTO BY TEQUILA MINSKY
confi nement on Rikers Island; and
the estate of Eric Garner in the early
stages of litigation against New York
City and the N.Y.P.D.
On receiving the award, Rubenstein
said how humbled he was. During his
acceptance, he emphasized to the judges
at the luncheon to maintain their independence.
“It is what stands between our democracy
and tyranny,” he said.
To young lawyers he urged, “Advocate
on behalf of victims in the courtroom
and in the streets, as well, to get
change, so what happens to one victim
does not happen to others.”
Rubenstein also signed his memoir,
“The Outrageous Rubenstein: How a
Media Savvy Trial Lawyer Fights for
Justice and Change,” which all in attendance
received.
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