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For Release: Immediately
June 20, 2012
Contact: Mark Mahoney
Associate Director, Media Services & Public Affairs
mmahoney@nysba.org
518-487-5532
SCHENECTADY COUNTY ATTORNEY CRISTINE CIOFFI ELECTED
PRESIDENT OF THE NEW YORK BAR FOUNDATION
Cristine Cioffi of Niskayuna has been elected president of The New York
Bar Foundation, which last year awarded $1.24 million in law-related
grants to 70 organizations statewide.
The Foundation is the charitable arm of the New York State Bar
Association. Founded in 1950, The Bar Foundation supports legal research
and education; provides funding for legal assistance, particularly to
the poor; and works to ensure high standards of professional ethics and
enhance the public’s understanding of legal heritage.
Cioffi said her main goals as president are to raise the
Foundation’s visibility among attorneys and the public, provide
grants in all 62 New York counties, strengthen youth courts and respond
to the changing need for Foundation services.
“In the last two years, there were many, many requests for
grants that were designed to either prevent bankruptcies, prevent
foreclosures or help people who were experiencing serious economic
problems gain access to legal services,” she said. “Ideally,
as the economy recovers, the need for those kinds of services will
decline, allowing us to direct grant money to other areas of
need.”
Cioffi is president and partner of Cioffi, Slezak & Wildgrube,
where she practices primarily in the fields of estate planning,
administration and elder law. She served for 10 years as a Schenectady
County legislator, including two years as minority leader, and is a past
president of the Schenectady County Bar Association.
At the Bar Association, she served on the House of Delegates and has
been a member of the Executive, Finance, Sarbanes Oxley, Strategic
Finance and Media Awards committees and the Special Committee on Issues
Affecting Same-Sex Couples. Prior to being elected president of the Bar
Foundation, she served as its assistant secretary.
She is immediate past chair of the Board of Trustees of Ellis
Medicine, where she continues to serve on the board, and is a trustee of
the Ellis Hospital Foundation.
She is a graduate of Middlebury College and Albany Law School.
Cioffi was elected to a one-year term as president by the
Foundation’s Board of Directors in January. She succeeds retired
Syracuse attorney M. Catherine Richardson (Bond, Schoeneck & King),
a former president of the State Bar Association.
Other current officers are John J. Kenney of New York City (Hoguet
Newman Regal & Kenney), vice president; Patricia K. Bucklin of
Albany (New York State Bar Association), secretary; and Richard Raysman
of New York City (Holland & Knight), treasurer.
A philanthropic organization, The New York Bar Foundation directs
grant money toward legal service agencies, not-for-profit organizations,
local bar associations, elementary and high schools and other
organizations that assist children and adults. Grants are awarded for
legal services, representation and advocacy; technology and innovation;
aid to disabled veterans; and education, scholarship and fellowships.
Amounts generally range from about $5,000 to $10,000. (A list of recent
grant recipients is attached.)
For more information about the Bar Foundation, visit its website at
www.tnybf.org.
The 77,000-member New York State Bar Association is the largest
voluntary state bar association in the country. It was founded in
1876.
BAR FOUNDATION GRANTS 2011
In 2011, the Bar Foundation awarded $1.24 million in grants,
scholarships and fellowships to nearly 70 organizations, including:
Albany-Capital District
Albany County Bar
Association, Albany; Bethlehem Youth Court, Inc., Delmar; Council for
the Prevention of Alcohol and Substance Abuse, Hudson Falls; Empire
Justice Center, Albany; In Our Own Voices, Inc., Albany; Legal Aid
Society of Northeastern New York, Albany; New York State Defenders
Association, Inc., Albany; Prisoners' Legal Services of New York,
Albany; Service, New York; Workers' Rights Law Center of New York, Inc.,
Kingston.
Central and Western New York
CASA of the
Southern Tier, Inc., Corning; Farmworker Legal Services of New York,
Inc., Rochester; Gay Men's Health Crisis, New York; Genesee County CASA
for Children, Batavia; Legal Aid Bureau of Buffalo, Inc., Buffalo; Legal
Aid Society of Mid-New York, Inc., Utica; Legal Aid Society of
Rochester, Inc., Rochester; Legal Assistance of Western New York, Inc.,
Geneva; Legal Services for the Elderly, Disabled or Disadvantaged of
Western New York, Inc. Buffalo; Lifespan of Greater Rochester, Inc.,
Rochester; Partnership for Ontario County, Canandaigua; Syracuse
University, Entrepreneurship Bootcamp for Veterans with Disabilities,
Syracuse; The Center for Youth Services, Inc., Rochester.
Long Island
Hillside Children's Foundation,
Morris; Huntington Youth Bureau Youth Development Research Institute,
Inc., Huntington; Mercy Haven, Inc., Islip Terrace; Nassau County
Bar Association, Inc., Mineola; Nassau/Suffolk Law Services Committee,
Inc., Hempstead.
New York City, Lower Hudson Valley
Brennan Center for Justice, New York; The Bronx Defenders,
Bronx; The Brooklyn Bar Association Volunteer Lawyers Project, Inc.,
Brooklyn; Center for Court Innovation/Fund for the City of New York, New
York; Center for Family Representation, New York; Edwin Gould Services
for Children & Families, Brooklyn; Goddard Riverside Community
Center, New York; Housing Court Answers, New York; inMotion Inc., New
York; LatinoJustice PRLDEF, New York; Lawyers for Children, New York;
Legal Action Center, New York; Legal Aid Society, Kew Gardens; Legal Aid
Society, New York; Legal Services New York City, New York; Lenox Hill
Neighborhood House, New York; Mental Health Association of Westchester,
Inc., Tarrytown; MFY Legal Services, Inc., New York; MinKwon Center for
Community Action, Flushing; My Sisters' Place, Inc., White Plains;
National Center for Law & Economic Justice, New York; Neighborhood
Economic Development Advocacy Project, New York; New York Civil
Liberties Union, New York; New York County Lawyers' Association, New
York; New York Lawyers for the Public Interest, Inc., New York; New York
Legal Assistance Group, New York; Northern Manhattan Improvement
Corporation, New York; Partnership for Children's Rights, New York;
Partnership for the Homeless, New York; Pro Bono Net, Inc., New York;
Queens County Bar Association Volunteer Lawyers Project, Jamaica; Safe
Horizon, Inc., New York; Selfhelp Community Services, Inc., New
York; The Door - A Center of Alternatives, Inc., New York; The
National Network to End Domestic Violence, New York; Volunteers of Legal
Services, New York.
Out of State
University of Pennsylvania Law
School, Center for Technology, Innovation and Competition, Philadelphia,
Pa.; Vermont Immigration and Asylum Advocates, Burlington, Vt.
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