Attorneys, paralegals and law students of Portuguese descent joined together today at Lareira Restaurant in Mineola to celebrate their heritage, profession and officially launch a New York State Chapter of the National Portuguese-American Bar Association (PABA).
“This is an incredible start . . .” said PABA NY President Gabriel Marques, an Attorney-MBA at Nassau County Government. “We have a great team, a lot of involvement and I truly believe this will be the start of something very special.”
PABA’s main focus will be to to promote the rule of law, support Portuguese-Americans in the legal profession, advance the Portuguese-American community through the law, and build bridges to legal counterparts in Portugal.
Several projects that the New York Chapter will be starting immediately include maintaining a list of Portuguese speaking attorneys and legal professionals in NY (which will be distributed to local community centers), creating legal guides and resources available at the Consulate of Portugal in New York and organizing future events to promote networking and collaboration.
“I am very excited to be involved because I love my profession and want to help give back to the community.” said Joanna Lima, PABA NY 1st Vice-President and associate at Farrell Fritz in Uniondale. Lisa Valente, a Paralegal at Makofsky & Associates, 3L law student at Touro Law Center and PABA NY 2nd Vice-President, also enjoyed the afternoon. “It was amazing to see all the Portuguese in the legal profession coming together with so much pride,” she said.
Another focus of PABA NY will be to help introduce younger Portuguese-Americans to the legal profession and to act as a resource for law students and new attorneys just starting out. Tiffany Alves, a 1L student at New York Law School and Adam Abreu, a 1L at Hofstra Law, will be co-chairs of the new Law Student Committee. Both agreed that the network will provide a “really great opportunity to study law while having a group of people from our community that are there to help and support us along the way,”
Other participants in the event included former New York State Senator Jack Martins, a partner at Harris Beach, Regina Correira, a paralegal with the Nassau County District Attorney’s Office, and Marco da Silva, a sole-practitioner in Mineola.
