Bay Ridge Lawyers honor outgoing President Grace Borrino during annual dinner dance

June 24, 2016 By Rob Abruzzese Brooklyn Daily Eagle

The Bay Ridge Lawyers Association honored outgoing President Grace Borrino during its annual dinner dance on Thursday. Pictured from left: RoseAnn C. Branda, Grace Borrino, state Sen. Marty Golden and Pat Russo. Photos by Rob Abruzzese

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The Bay Ridge Lawyers Association packed nearly 200 judges, lawyers and other dignitaries into Battery Gardens in Manhattan for its 62nd annual dinner dance on Thursday night, where it honored outgoing President Grace M. Borrino.

Borrino was sent out with dinner, drinks and a lot of dancing, and she was honored by a short speech by her friend and mentor RoseAnn C. Branda. Past President Pat Russo also bestowed her with citations from local politicians and the state Sen. Marty Golden, from Bay Ridge, was on hand to present her with a citation.

“Tonight we gather to celebrate the accomplishments of this year’s president, Grace Borrino,” Branda said. “Grace tackled this presidency with vigor and enthusiasm. She raised membership and involved new, younger attorneys in this organization.

“She organized wonderful monthly speakers and programs, hosted a wonderful Christmas party and spearheaded a tremendously successful Atlantic City seminar,” Branda continued. “She did all of this during the pregnancy and birth of her 1-month-old daughter Emily Grace, and while mothering her adorable 2-year-old son Joseph, all while trying cases and diligently practicing law.”

Branda explained how she wasn’t surprised that Borrino could pull off such a fantastic year as president despite working full-time and being pregnant, because the two have worked closely together since Borrino went to work for Branda out of law school 12 years ago.

“She has an amazing work ethic, is smart as a whip, is fast as lightning, she cared deeply about the problems of our clients and she enjoyed the challenges of practicing law,” Branda said. “Grace has turned into a phenomenal attorney with an amazing career ahead of her.”

Before being presented with citations from U.S. Rep. Dan Donovan, state Assemblymember Nicole Malliotakis, City Councilmember Vincent Gentile and state Sen. Golden, plus a proclamation on behalf of the City Council, Borrino gave a speech during which she spoke about how important the Bay Ridge Lawyers and Branda have been to her career.

“I was a student in law school when I started working for RoseAnn’s firm,” Borrino said. “RoseAnn was a prominent matrimonial attorney and was about to be president of the Brooklyn Bar Association, and yet she took a new attorney under her wing, had an amazing amount of patience and taught me everything she knew. I owe my whole career to her and I am the attorney I am because of her.”

She also thanked everyone for their help during what was a busy and tough year.

“This year was not easy for me as my presidency coincided with the birth of my second child,” she said. “But soon I learned that what has kept this association going on all these years is that it is not run by just one person. I had an amazing slate of officers behind me — Steve, Margaret, Joe and Mary Ann — and this association is lucky to have these officers coming up the ladder.”