March greetings to WWBA members and friends, we’ve just about made it to the other side of a relentless winter. With Westchester County having experienced record-setting snowfall this season, particularly during the blizzard on February 22-23, I hope that you have all maintained your footing in your practices and communities. We know that what has been deeply frozen in the ground these months will emerge and thrive in spring.

The WWBA has been consistent in its strides in 2026. On January 22, the third annual mentorship program, “The Value of Mentorship and Sponsorship for Personal and Professional Development, and to Foster Engagement,” was presented by the Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion, Mentorship, Employment Law, and Litigation Committees, together with the Westchester Black Bar Association and the law firm of Wilson Elser Moskowitz Edelman & Dicker, which graciously hosted. Energetic law students and attorneys absorbed insights about the mentor/mentee relationship from panelists including state and federal judges as well as practitioners, and discussed the potential for mentors and sponsors to significantly shape our careers. The evening drew empowering conversation and offered all a chance to expand their legal network.

On February 4, the Grievance and Ethics Committee presented an ethics and law practice update 2026, “The Ups and Downs of Being Your Own Boss: Practical and Ethical Considerations in Running Your Law Office.” Past WWBA Presidents Deborah A. Scalise, Esq., of Scalise & Hamilton PC, and Lisa M. Bluestein, Esq., of the Law Offices of Lisa M. Bluestein, LLC, guided attendees through rules and case studies as we examined the obligations for running your own practice. Among important takeaways were tips on how a solo practitioner might identify an appropriate office space, negotiate an appropriate lease for their office space, follow appropriate supervisory protocol for employees and other professional collaborators, and comply with ethical obligations in client relationships.

The WWBA also continued its presence in the broader community this winter, having participated in the Wellbeing Fair at the Elisabeth Haub School of Law at Pace University, and in Read Across America at the Eugenio María de Hostos MicroSociety School and the Justice Sonia Sotomayor Community School in Yonkers, which are always special days with students. On March 11 we completed the Winter Coat Drive with the Westchester County Bar Association (WCBA) by donating around ten large bags to the Thomas H. Slater Center in White Plains.

Thank you to all who were involved in planning or participating in these and other programs and outreach endeavors.

Notably, in March, we celebrate Women’s History Month, which honors the vital contributions of women to American history, culture, and society, and coincides with International Women’s Day (March 8), reinforcing the global movement for women’s rights. The month originated in 1978 as a local “Women’s History Week” celebration in Sonoma County, California, to address the underrepresentation of women in traditional history education. The idea spread quickly, leading to national recognition, and President Jimmy Carter issued the first presidential proclamation declaring the week of March 8, 1980, as National Women’s History Week. Following lobbying by the National Women’s History Project (now National Women’s History Alliance), Congress passed Public Law 100-9, designating March 1987 as the first Women’s History Month.

We know that there have been many brilliant and formidable trailblazers in the very special roster of the WWBA, and we continue to learn more about their achievements and contributions during this 50th Anniversary year. Over a year ago, when I was preparing to enter the presidency, and spending time with the archives of the WWBA and of Westchester in general, I landed on “The Women of the American Revolution,” written by Elizabeth F. Ellet. Volume I was published in 1848. Ellet was a civics-minded author who called out the problem of underrepresentation even then—to the detriment of the role of women in securing American independence being “lost or obscured by time”—and she sought a remedy, “by persevering effort, to recover something worthy of an enduring record” (Preface).¹ She attributed a chapter to each woman profiled, beginning with Mary Washington, mother of George (Volume II, published in 1849, began with Martha Washington).

But Ellet also acknowledged what could not be captured and conveyed on the page, stating in her Preface, “There is, also, inherent difficulty in delineating female character, which impresses itself on the memory of those who have known the individual by delicate traits, that may be felt but not described.” If I might extrapolate from that, very simply, there is no substitute for presence, and experiences. Something to register in our time with family members, friends, and community.

Later this month there will be more opportunities to celebrate, collaborate, and learn. On March 25, the WWBA will join the Puerto Rican Bar Association and the Hudson Valley Hispanic Bar Association (HVHBA) in a "Wine & Shine Paint Night" in honor of Women’s History Month. And, on March 30, the WWBA will join a host of bar associations including the WCBA, the HVHBA, the Westchester Black Bar Association, the Justice Brandeis Law Society, and Columbian Lawyers Association of Westchester County, for a “A Multi-Bar Summit for Equity and Allyship” at the Judicial Institute in White Plains. The daylong summit was conceived by WCBA President Brian Cohen and WWBA Vice President Angela DiBiasi, who is also a member of the WCBA Board of Directors, and is aimed to bring together our organizations for discussions that will confront antisemitism, racism, and all forms of hate, celebrate our communities’ shared histories of advocacy and resilience, build stronger relationships among our memberships, and equip attorneys with practical tools to be more effective allies. The summit may be attended in full or in part, and promises to be a meaningful day. I hope to see you there.

¹Ellet began her Preface as follows: “In offering this work to the public, it is due to the reader no less than the writer, to say something of the extreme difficulty which has been found in obtaining materials sufficiently reliable for a record designed to be strictly authentic. Three quarters of a century have necessarily effaced all recollection of many imposing domestic scenes of the Revolution, and cast over many a veil of obscurity through which it is hard to distinguish their features. Whatever has not been preserved by contemporaneous written testimony, or derived at an early period from immediate actors in the scenes, is liable to the suspicion of being distorted or discolored by the imperfect knowledge, the prejudices, or the fancy of its narrators. It is necessary always to distrust, and very often to reject traditionary information.”