May 2, 2017

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RECORDERdaily at www.therecorder.com Affinity Bar Groups Pay Tribute to Abdus-Salaam By Len Maniace

he late Sheila Abdus- Salaam was remem- bered at a private memorial Monday not only as a brilliant judgeT but as a warm and caring woman who was as eager to men- tor generations of jurists and serve on the bench. Nearly three dozen affinity bar groups representing female, black, Hispanic, LGBT and Muslim attorneys gathered to pay tribute to Abdus-Salaam, 65, whose body Courtesy photo was found in the Hudson River on New York City Bar Association executive director Bret Parker, left, listens as Cooley April 12 and whose death remains partner Joseph Drayton, speaking on behalf of the National Bar Association, pays tribute to Judge Sheila Abdus-Salaam during a private memorial at the City Bar under investigation. Monday night. The private memorial, held at the New York City Bar Association, “She was a champion with Former New York Attorney was sponsored by the Joint Bar the odds stacked against her. A General Robert Abrams described Association Coalition. The New champion who hurdled challenge hiring Abdus-Salaam as an assis- York Law Journal was invited to after challenge to make her way tant AG in 1980, about a year after cover the event. to the highest court in the state,” he took office. He recalled her rise Judges, representatives of legal said Joseph Drayton, a partner at from deprivation in Washington, organizations, a past New York Cooley who spoke on behalf of D.C., where she grew up, to gradu- state attorney general and attor- the National Bar Association. “We ating from Barnard College and neys mentored by Abdus-Salaam are not here because of that. We Columbia Law School, eventually spoke of a woman who set an are here because she touched us a taking a seat on the state’s high- example in many ways. friend; touched us as a sister.” est court in 2013, becoming from RECORDER

New York, called Abdus-Salaam a “I shared with her my expe- trailblazer. He cited her decision riences with the job and then last year in Brooke S.B. v. Elizabeth she shared with me that she had A.C.C., which expanded the defini- recently gotten married, and what tion of parenthood and provided is was like to be married as a more relief to LGBT families. It overturned mature woman,” Grays said. “She a 1991 ruling by the Court of Appeals was able to share that with me and that held a nonbiological parent in a it was very inspiring and comfort- same-sex couple had no standing to ing. That will be a memory that I seek visitation or custody rights after cherish as the last one that I had their relationship ended. with her.” “For our community she will for- Other speakers at the memorial ever be remembered as a revered included Bronx Supreme Court heroine for the advancement of Justice La Tia Martin, on behalf of the rights of LGBT families across the Judicial Friends Association; the state,” Figlewski said. Kaylin Whittingham, president of The tributes were often deeply the Association of Black Women Justice Sheila Abdus-Salaam personal. Attorneys; Appellate Division, Tim Roske Taa Grays, vice president and First Department, Justice Angela first black woman to serve on that associate general counsel at Mazzarelli, on behalf of the panel. Metropolitan Life Insurance Women’s Bar Association of the And he recounted his conversa- Co., who spoke on behalf of the State of New York and its chap- tion with her before she sought New York State Bar Association, ters; Luis Gonzalez, a retired First election to a Civil Court judicial said she met Abdus-Salaam at Department presiding justice, post in 1991. the Association of Black Women on behalf of the Latino bar asso- “Sheila that’s fantastic, you Attorneys, where both were mem- ciations and the Latino Judges deserve to be a judge. You’ve got bers, and spoke of how their paths Association; Manhattan Supreme all the qualities to be a judge,” crossed through the years. Court Justice Jeffrey Oing, on Abrams recalled saying. Grays said she caught up with behalf of three Asian bar asso- “Well, Bob, will you be a refer- Abdus-Salaam at a state bar event ciations; city bar executive direc- ence for me?” in January and remembered the tor Bret Parker; and Paula Edgar, “I said, ‘Of course I will.’ And conversation was more akin to president of the Metropolitan that became the beginning of a talk with an old friend than Black Bar Association. years of taking phone calls from with one of the state’s most distin- A public memorial for Abdus- judicial screening panels.” guished judges. She said Abdus- Salaam is scheduled for noon Brett Figlewski, legal director of Salaam immediately asked about May 26 at the Cathedral Church the LGBT Bar Association of Greater the changes in Grays’ life. of Saint John the Divine.

Reprinted with permission from the May 2, 2017 edition of THE RECORDER © 2017 ALM Media Properties, LLC. All rights reserved. Further duplication without permission is prohibited. For information, contact 877-257-3382 or [email protected]. # 501-05-17-04