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 Outstanding Young Lawyer Award
Outstanding Young Lawyer Award
The Young Lawyers Section each year
honors a young lawyer who has rendered outstanding service to both the
community and legal profession. The Outstanding Young Lawyer Award
recognizes an attorney who has actively practiced less than 10
years, and has a distinguished record of commitment to the finest
traditions of the Bar through public service and professional
activities.
To obtain a copy of the 2010 Outstanding Young
Lawyer Award application, please click
here.
Past Recipients
2009 Andrew P.
Sparkler, New York City
Since graduating
from Fordham University School of Law in 2005, Andrew P. Sparkler
of New York (American Society of Composers, Authors and
Publishers) has founded a non-profit organization dedicated to
preventing suicide and eliminating the stigma associated with depression
by raising awareness and encouraging treatment of depression among
adolescents and young adults. Sparkler is the Assistant Director of Legal Corporate for the
American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers
“ASCAP” providing legal advice and support to an
organization dedicated to protecting its members' rights. Specifically, Sparkler’s
practice involves providing legal advice to ASCAP business units
including Marketing, Membership and certain ASCAP subsidiaries and
corresponding with foreign performing rights
organizations.
2008 David A. Kochman,
New York City
David A. Kochman is an associate in the
New
York office of Reed Smith LLP. He
concentrates his practice on complex commercial, corporate and insurance
recovery litigation matters. Devoting substantial time and effort
to pro bono matters, Mr. Kochman serves as post-conviction counsel to a
prisoner on death row in Alabama, for whom he recently won an
appeal before the 11th Circuit reinstating the client’s
habeas petition. Other pro bono projects include co-founding the
Hurricane Insurance Claim Help Library, an online resource for
individual hurricane victims; serving as attorney-coach for a Harlem high school in the NYSBA’s Mock Trial
Tournament; and defending a Tibetan asylum applicant in removal
proceedings. While attending law school, Mr. Kochman co-founded the
Public Law, Policy & Ethics Journal and worked for the Legal Aid
Society of New York City representing criminal defendants through
Cardozo’s Criminal Defense Clinic. At graduation, Mr. Kochman was
presented with the school’s Jacob Burns Medal for Scholastic
Achievement. Prior to law school, he worked for the Deputy Speaker
of the Israeli Knesset.
2007 Laurie A.
Giordano, Rochester
Ms. Giordano has made many valuable contributions to the Rochester and the New
York State legal
communities. She has been active within the New York State Bar
Association in several capacities including the Women and the Law
Project. She has been a member of the Executive Committee and served as
CLE Chair of the
Torts, Insurance and Compensation Law Section. She has been a consistent
CLE presenter
since 2000, as well as the co-Editor of Insurance Law Practice, Chapter
22, Subrogation (Revised 2006), published by the New York State Bar
Association. She has been involved with the Insurance Coverage Committee
and the Diversity Committee of the Association. Ms. Giordano’s
civic and community involvement is widespread and varied. Her mentoring
of both area students and young attorneys has included her lecturing,
her bar participation, her activities with the local Girl Scouts, her
participation in the Association’s Mock Trial Competition, and in
the Big Brother/Big Sister Program. Ms. Giordano’s accomplishments
are illustrated by the accolades she has received in recent years. In
2006, she was chosen as one of the “Up and Coming” Attorneys
in the Rochester area by the Daily
Record, the local legal publication. She is truly committed to her New
York State Bar Association participation, and her professional
contributions were recognized by the Association when she was awarded
the Torts, Insurance and Compensation Law Section’s Outstanding
Young Lawyer of the Year, and Chair of the Year for 2005. Her service to
the local Girl Scouts was also recognized by her receipt of a Girl
Scouts of Genesee Valley Green Angel Award in 2006. In addition, as a
practicing attorney, Ms. Giordano has been involved in, and instrumental
in handling a number of legally significant cases.
2006 Michael C. Rakower, New York City
Solo practitioner focusing on federal
litigation and commercial disputes and of counsel to the Law Offices of
Gordon Mehler and Constantine Cannon, P.C. University of Virginia School
of Law, 1999. Began career handling securities offerings and advising
investment banks. Pro bono counseling to businesses devastated by the
September 11th attacks and helped to obtain political asylum for
refugees. Won six-figure settlement for a prison inmate in a federal
lawsuit against the City of New York. Senior law clerk to Hon. Richard
C. Wesley, U.S. Second Circuit Court of Appeals. Pro bono member of the
Prosecutors Office, International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda,
assisting in bringing to trial the perpetrators of the 1994 Rwandan
genocide. Contributing author to “To Oppose Any Foe: The Legacy of
U.S. Intervention in Vietnam.”
2005 Elissa
D. Hecker, Irvington
Solo practitioner focusing on copyright,
trademark and business law. Brooklyn Law School, 1998. Began career as
associate counsel for The Harry Fox Agency, Inc., New York City, until
opening her own law practice in 2004. Immediate Past Chair of the New
York State Bar Association Entertainment, Arts and Sports Law Section,
and has been the SectionVice Chair, editor of the EASL Journal, and
founder and co-chair of the EASL Pro Bono Committee. Member Copyright
Society of the USA, the Board of Directors, Journal of the Copyright
Society of the U.S.A. Frequent author, lecturer and
panelist.
2004 John
G. Horn, Buffalo
Senior Associate, Harter, Secrest & Emery
LLP, Buffalo handles a range of complex litigation matters in state and
federal courts including commercial litigation, unfair competition and
business torts, product liability, employment discrimination defense,
and shareholder derivative and direct actions. Loyola University School
of Law, 1998. Began career as confidential law clerk to Senior U.S.
District Court Judge John T. Elfvin in the Western District of New York.
Frequent presenter at CLE seminars and is admitted to the Seneca Nation
of Indians Peacemakers Court. Board of Trustees of the Buffalo
Philharmonic Orchestra, vice presieent of Lawyers for Learning, Inc.,
lay reader at Westminster Presbyterian Church, trombonist in
Buffalo’s 12-8 Path Band. Also recipient of Buffalo Business First
Pathfinders Award, Daily Record’s Ten Up & Coming Attorneys in
Western New York, Pro Bono Special Service Award from the U.S. District
Court, Western District of New York, Apha Sigma Nu Jesuit Honor Society,
and Leadership and Service Award , Loyola University School of
Law.
2003 Elizabeth A. Wolford, Rochester
Partner, Wolford & LeClair, LLP,
Rochester focusing on commercial, healthcare, personal injury and
employment litigation. University of Notre Dame Law School, 1992. At
Notre Dame, Research Editor of Notre Dame Law Review. Past President of
the Greater Rochester Association for Women Attorneys and has coached
high school team in NYSBA Mock Trial Tournament. Pro bono representation
of indigent and low-income clients through the Volunteer Legal Services
Project in Rochester, mentored new attorneys through the Rochester Inns
of Court and GRAWA’s mentoring committee. Also recipient of
Special Service Award from the U.S. District Court for the Western
District of New York.
2002 Bradley P. Kammholz, Rochester
Managing Partner, The Kammholz Law Firm,
concentrating on personal injury law. Boston University School of Law,
1990. Co-founder and Past Secretary of the Rochester Inns of Court,
Rochester City Elementary School 29 mentor, longtime involvement in
Lawyers for Learning, Tools for Schools, American Heart Association.
Extensive NYSBA board, section and committee activities. Winner 2001
Rochester Business Journal “40 Under 40” Award, 1998 Monroe
County Bar Association President’s Award.
2001 Caterine Cerulli, Rochester
Assistant Professor of Psychiatry, School of
Medicine and Dentistry and Family Violence Clinic, SUNY/Buffalo School
of Law, and director, Laboratory of Interpersonal Violence and
Victimization. State University of New York at Buffalo School of Law,
1992. Co-founder, SUNY School of Law Domestic Violence Clinic. Honored
for pioneering “Legal Links”, which assists Russians with
the advancement of the rule of law by partnering with Russian legal
professionals. Formerly Monroe County Assistant District Attorney and
founder and director of Stop Abuse in the Family Environment, a
misdemeanor domestic violence program.
2000 Clyde Jay Eisman, New York City
Law Offices of Clyde Jay Eismann
concentrating on solo and small law firm practitioners, litigation and
consumer law. Tulane Law School, 1994. Law clerk in the Office of the
General Counsel, U.S. Department of Defense at Fort Meade, Maryland and
in the Office of the General Counsel, U.S. Department of Air Force at
the Pentagon. Publisher of “The Solo Practitioner”, a
quarterly newsletter, and writes a monthly column on solo practice for
the New York Law Journal. In 1997, served as senior adjudicatror for the
Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, supervising
municipal elestions in Bosnia-Herzegovina. Organized the donation of
$10,000 in sporting goods to schoolchildren in
Bosnia-Herzogovina.
1999 David A. Dorfman, New York City
1998 Theresa Bryant Whelan, Wading
River
1997 Lesley Szanto
Friedman, New York City
1996 Dawn Florio,
Queens
1995 Jon P. Getz,
Rochester
1994 Kevin Luibrand,
Albany
1993 Douglas J.
Lerose, Syosset
1992 Ree Adler,
Rochester
1991 Miriam Pismeny,
Hempstead
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