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Brooklyn Women’s Bar Association honors past president Justice Quinones

September 21, 2018 By Rob Abruzzese, Legal Editor Brooklyn Daily Eagle
The Brooklyn Women’s Bar Association, its President Carrie Anne Cavallo (left) and John Coffey (center) presented Hon. Joanne Quinones (right) with the Amy Wren Award for her contributions to the legal community and Brooklyn during its annual Membership Party. Eagle photos by Mario Belluomo
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Acting Supreme Court Justice Joanne Quinones is going to need a bigger mantle.

Just three months after receiving a prestigious award from the state bar, Justice Quinones was presented with the Brooklyn Women’s Bar Association’s (BWBA) Amy Wren Award during the annual Membership Party that was held at Borough Hall on Monday.

“We are presenting her with this award for her dedication not only to the Women’s Bar, but to the legal community and the legal profession at large,” said BWBA President Carrie Anne Cavallo. “The BWBA is honored to have Joanne as one of its distinguished members and I am privileged to call her my friend.”

Members of the bar association gathered in the rotunda inside Borough Hall for food and drinks while John Coffey, the BWBA’s first and only male board member, presented Justice Quinones with the award.

“This award is named for Amy Wren, suffragette, founder and the first president of the incorporated Brooklyn Women’s Bar Association,” Coffey said. “The purpose of this award is to honor a member who has made a significant contribution to the Brooklyn community at large.”

Justice Quinones received the Hon. Judith S. Kaye Access to Justice Award from the Women’s Bar Association of the State of New York during its annual convention in June.

Coffey talked about Justice Quinones’ time as president of the BWBA, and the ongoing projects that she organizes including the annual BWBA Read Across America event where she and other members dress up as Dr. Seuss characters and read to children at her old elementary school in Bushwick.

“You truly have not seen it all until you have seen Joanne dressed as Thing 1 from Dr. Seuss’ ‘Cat in the Hat,’” Coffey joked.

Quinones explained that she is so active within the BWBA, and many other local and national bar associations including the National Association of Women Judges and the Latino Judges Association, is because she is simply doing what she loves.

“I am incredibly honored to be receiving the Amy Wren award named after one of the founders,” Quinones said. “To be acknowledged for my contributions by an organization that has given so much to me is truly humbling. And to be recognized for doing something that I love — giving back to the community I was born and raised in — is icing on the cake.

“What’s not to love about getting dressed like a character from a Dr. Seuss book and reading to first graders?” she asked.  “What’s not to love about supporting pink from top to bottom and walking alongside thousands of Brooklynites in the fight to find a cure for breast cancer? What’s not to love about speaking with students of all ages about the law and our justice system and encouraging them to join us in ensuring equal access and equal justice for all? Thank you for honoring me for simply doing what I love.”

From left: Hon. Nancy Bannon, Hon. Teresa Ciccotto and Betsey Jean Jacques.

 

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