ADAMS STREET – Neighborhood activists were joined by prominent members of the legal community, including former Chief Judge Judith Kaye, to celebrate the 41st anniversary of Brooklyn Legal Services Corporation A at the Brooklyn Marriott on Thursday.

Kaye, the longtime chief judge of New York state who stepped down at the end of 2008, was the keynote speaker. She gave an inspirational talk to the more than 300 guests assembled at the annual gala fundraiser. Celebrated at the gathering was “another bridge to Brooklyn,� the Partnership for Community & Economic Development, which is a legal unit at Brooklyn Corporation A.

The unit supports neighborhood-based, non-profit groups with their work and any legal matters they need to handle. It has worked to revitalize and rebuild some of the city’s poorest and most under-served neighborhoods in North and East Brooklyn by creating and maintaining affordable housing, tenant associations, primary health care facilities and senior citizen and daycare centers.

Brooklyn-born Daily News columnist Errol Louis, who graduated from Brooklyn Law School, was the master of ceremonies.

Honorees included, in the attorney category, John Feerick, founding director of the Feerick Center for Justice at Fordham Law School; in the corporate category, Eileen Auld, Queens activist and director for community relations at Citi’s Global Consumer Group; and in the community category, Father John Powis, founding director of the Bushwick Independent Housing Project and a legendary priest in Brownsville and Bushwick for 50 years.

—Samuel Newhouse
Brooklyn Daily Eagle

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