ALANY – The New York State Bar Association is accepting nominations for the 14th annual
Ruth G. Schapiro Memorial Award. The award honors a male or female Association member who has contributed to the advancement of women’s issues. Such endeavors include contributions of service to bar associations or community organizations, writing, pro bono work, or other related activities.
Eligible nominees may be judges, attorneys, or law school students who are Association members. The award presentation will be January 28, 2005 during the state bar’s House of Delegates meeting in New York.
Donna Petrucelli of New York, serves as chair of the Committee on Women in the Law.
Ruth Schapiro was the founding chair of the Association’s Special Committee on Women in the Courts (now the Committee on Women in the Law), the award’s sponsor. Under her leadership, the committee’s initial report in 1987 served as a catalyst for subsequent reports and actions by the Association that affect not only women in the profession, but also the public at large. Some of those gender-related issues include domestic violence, child abuse, bias, and health. During her tenure, the committee also established educational programs and produced publications for both the profession and the public.
Schapiro was a dedicated member, having served the legal profession on the state bar’s Executive Committee and as a member of the House of Delegates – its decision- and policy-making body. She chaired the Association’s Finance Committee and Tax Section as well. Throughout her distinguished career, Schapiro strove to educate the profession and public alike on gender-related issues.
In 1992, a year after Schapiro’s death, the first award was presented to Chief Judge Judith S. Kaye of the Court of Appeals. Subsequent honorees, among others, included: Fern Schair of New York, former chief administrative officer of the Association of the Bar of the City of New York; Hon. Sondra Miller of White Plains, associate justice of the Appellate Division, Second Department; Maryann Saccomando Freedman of Buffalo, the state bar’s first woman president; Hon. Betty Weinberg Ellerin, associate justice of the Appellate Division, First Department; and Kristin Booth Glen, dean of CUNY School of Law at Queens College.
Nomination forms may be obtained from the Committee on Women in the Law, NYSBA, One Elk Street, Albany, NY 12207, (518) 463-3200. Deadline for nominations is October 2. (Current members of the Committee on Women in the Law are not eligible for nomination.)
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