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Young Lawyers offer new attorneys a way to break into the Brooklyn Bar

July 2, 2015 By Rob Abruzzese Brooklyn Daily Eagle
Members of the Young Lawyers section of the Brooklyn Bar Association (from left): Michael Treybich, Gail Torodash, Chair Daniel Antonelli and Gregory Esposito. Eagle photo by Rob Abruzzese.
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When Daniel Antonelli went to his first Brooklyn Bar Association (BBA) meeting, he was overwhelmed. Everyone was nice and collegial, but he wasn’t far removed from law school and there he was standing in a crowd of lawyers and judges some of whom had been working as long as he had been alive. It was intimidating.

Eventually Antonelli was recruited by and found a place among the Young Lawyers, a section of the BBA meant to help lawyers practicing for less than 10 years to transition into the larger group.

“It was intimidating because when I first joined I didn’t know anybody,” Antonelli said. “I was probably about 28. I was one of the very youngest so when I went the first time there are people who have been working for 20 or 30 years and it is very intimidating. I think it takes a real specific type of personality to jump into that.”

That was a little under eight years ago. Today, Antonelli has thrived within the organization and credits the Young Lawyers section for not only helping him to ease into it, but also for helping to foster his leadership abilities. Antonelli is currently the chair of the Young Lawyers section, and also the BBA’s youngest trustee.

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Antonelli nearly missed out on that experience though. When he joined, the Young Lawyers was a mostly inactive section with only a few members. It wasn’t until a year or two into his membership at the BBA when Jimmy Lathrop took over the section and helped revitalize it.

Lathrop recruited Antonelli and started making the section more active. Suddenly there were events like bowling nights and mixers with Young Lawyers sections from other bar associations. Robin Goeman took over after Lathrop and continued his success. The group grew from a handful of members to closer to 30 members and counting. Antonelli sees even bigger things for the section in the future.

“I’m hoping to create something that is ours,” Antonelli said. “We’ve developed a little bit of a community and we can go to that community for resources, if we need help on cases, to partner up with other attorneys, to give and get referrals, to get educated, CLEs (Continuing Legal Education seminars) are a prime example, and to make friends and have a good time.”

To do this, Antonelli wants to continue with the group’s many events and wants to increase its presence among the BBA as a whole. That means more CLEs and more involvement with the larger association. He plans for a large portion of the group to go with the BBA to a Brooklyn Cyclones game on July 29 and is even trying to recruit members from the group to join the BBA during its trip to Cuba in February.

By advocating for participation, the Young Lawyers section is hoping that the group can become a real tool to increase membership for the BBA. It often recruits at local law schools and independent events. The group also hopes to become a leadership pipeline.

“It’s definitely a place, an entry point, for a young lawyer if they are interested in the politics of the bar because it’s a feeding ground,” said Gregory Esposito, a member of the Young Lawyers for the past three years. “I think the upper echelon looks to the young lawyers. Dan is probably the youngest trustee and we hope to produce more like him.”


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