Smooth Moves 2023: Career Strategies for Diverse Attorneys CLE Panel

Diversity in Public Service

This program is free for NYSBA members

CLE Program: 5:00 p.m. to 6:00 p.m.

Reception & Award Ceremony: 6:00 p.m. to 8:00 p.m.

Please join us for the 2023 Smooth Moves Diversity & Inclusion CLE and The Honorable George Bundy Smith Pioneer Award Ceremony, honoring and celebrating New York City Corporation Counsel, the Honorable Sylvia Hinds-Radix.

This year’s esteemed panel of Camille Joseph Varlack, Chief of Staff to the Honorable Eric Adams, Mayor of New York City,  Lynelle Maginley-Liddie, First Deputy Commissioner, NYC Department of Corrections, Paul Zaragoza, Chief of the Workers Compensation Division of the NYC Law Department, will discuss their public service careers and touch on the benefits to themselves and the communities they serve of having diverse public servants to ensure the public’s perceptions of fairness within the system.  The CLE panelists will offer practical guidance to diverse public service employees, in particular, on ways to enhance their careers, seeking out mentorship and taking advantage of career development opportunities.

The Commercial & Federal Litigation Section of the New York State Bar Association will be bestowing The Honorable George Bundy Smith Pioneer Award (the “Pioneer Award”) to the Honorable Sylvia Hinds-Radix, the New York City Corporation Counsel. The Pioneer Award is presented annually by the Section to an attorney or jurist of color whose career accomplishments exemplify the high standards set by the Honorable George Bundy Smith, the late judge of the New York State Court of Appeals. The award, which celebrates the hallmarks of Judge Smith’s career — legal excellence, community commitment and mentoring — was established in 2007 in recognition of his work as a Freedom Rider during the Civil Rights Movement, and his unwavering commitment to social justice during his 30 years of public service as a judge.

Judge Hinds-Radix is a true pioneer in every sense of the word. Prior to her appointment as the 81^st Corporation Counsel of the City of New York in February 2022, Justice Hinds-Radix served as an Associate Justice of the NYS Appellate Division, Second Department from 2012. Before joining the Appellate Division, she served as Administrative Judge for Civil Matters in the Second Judicial District for three and a half years. Justice Hinds-Radix was elected to the Supreme Court, Kings County in November 2004 and served as a New York City Civil Court Judge from 2002 through 2004. In 1985, soon after graduating from Howard University School of Law, Justice Hinds-Radix joined the legal staff of District Council 37 Municipal Employees Legal Services, where she remained until her Civil Court election in 2001.  

CLE Program:

Moderator

Kan M. Nawaday, Partner at Venable LLP

Panelists

Camille Joseph Varlack, Chief of Staff to the Honorable Eric Adams, Mayor of NYC 

Lynelle Maginley-Liddie, First Deputy Commissioner, NYC Department of Corrections 

Paul Zaragoza, Chief of the Workers Comp. Division of the NYC Law Department

Award Ceremony:

Ignatius Grande, Section Chair – Welcome

Kan M. Nawaday, Co-Chair of the Section’s Diversity Committee – Welcome & Reflection of Judge Bundy-Smith and the Award’s History

Vernadette Horne, Co-Chair of the Section's Diversity Committee – Introduction of Presenter Tracee Davis

Tracee Davis, Partner at Seyfarth & Shaw LLP – Introduction of the Hon. Sylvia Hinds-Radix

Hon. Sylvia Hinds-Radix, New York City Corporation Counsel – Remarks and Acceptance of Award

Thank you to our Sponsors!

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