QCWBA honors four judges during annual judiciary night
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Judges Bruna DiBiase, Marcia Hirsch, Elise S. Koenderman and Toko Serita were honored by the Queens County Women’s Bar Association on Nov. 30, 2021. Photos via QCWBA
By Jacob Kaye
Several judges working in problem solving parts were honored Tuesday evening during the Queens County Women’s Bar Association’s Judiciary Night.
The annual event, which was hosted virtually for the second year in a row, saw 11th judicial district Judges Bruna DiBiase, Marcia Hirsch, Elise S. Koenderman and Toko Serita receive awards and recognition for their work.
“Congratulations to these terrific judges and their stellar court staff,” said Hon. Deborah Kaplan, the deputy chief administrative judge for New York City courts. “They perform their work each day with skills and with compassion. And they have done an absolutely remarkable job of navigating all of the COVID related restrictions over the last 21 months.”
The judges honored Tuesday preside over several court parts that deal with youth, drug, domestic violence and other issues, respectively.
DiBiase presides over the youth part in Queens County Supreme Court, Criminal Term, Hirsch presides over the Queens County Drug Treatment, Mental Health, Veterans Treatment and DWI Courts, Koenderman presides over the Queens County Integrated Domestic Violence Court and Serita presides over the Queens County Misdemeanor Treatment, Mental Health Recovery and Human Trafficking Intervention Courts.
The evening began with remarks from Kaplan, who was recently named to her deputy chief administrative judge position and who gave QCWBA members an update on the work the court’s administration has been doing. Chief Judge Janet DiFiore also delivered recorded remarks, congratulating the jurists and wishing the organization well.
“While the pandemic has certainly taken its toll on our court system, we've worked hard to identify new and valuable opportunities to improve access to court services,” Kaplan said. “We have also been working hard to address the most urgent challenge facing our court system at this time, the need to eliminate all vestiges of bias and discrimination from our courts...I urge you all to read the [Equal Justice Year in Review report] in order to appreciate the many, many ways in which we have re-dedicated ourselves to changing our institutional culture to ensure that every colleague we work with, and every individual who appears before us is treated with the utmost fairness and equity no matter who they are, or where they come from in life.”
Queens District Attorney Melinda Katz, the first woman to hold the office in history, also gave remarks.
Katz said that working in the same courts as the judges honored during the ceremony has been a “humbling experience.”
“To know every single day the value that you put on people's future, the issues that you bring up on a daily basis, the people and generations that many of you have changed in the lives of folks that otherwise would have been in a jail or otherwise would have been prosecuted and ended up in a very different situation than they were were it not for you being the judge and for not the diversion programs and all that you stand for being so important to the people of Queens County,” Katz said.
The district attorney, who will soon enter into her third year in office, described a cycle of crime that is sometimes perpetuated by simply prosecuting and punishing offenders over and over again, and how that cycle can be broken through the work of the honorees.
“While punishing our most dangerous violent offenders is a priority as well, to many of our communities here in Queens County continue to be plagued by the cycle of crime, of drug use of delinquency and of incarceration, it can't be broken unless we substantially bolster both the alternatives to and paths of diversion from prison,” she added.
Fay Parris, the recently appointed president of the women’s bar association, presented the awards to DiBiase, Hirsch, Koenderman and Serita.
“Throughout the years, each of these judges have inquired beyond the written file and they place paramount the personal plight and comprehensive needs of individuals before them,” Parris said. “They have thus administered a more perfect justice and have indelibly empowered individuals with tools to have full agency over their lives.”
“These justices continue to engender for many individuals positive thoughts of self worthiness, hope for the future and a sense of belonging to a multi discipline system of healing and care – I thank you all,” she added.
When being honored, Hirsch, who’s first appointment was to the Court of Claims in 2005, said that the four judges work closely together in an effort to make a difference.
“We're all good friends, we all work hard together, and we really do make a difference in the lives of the people who come in front of us,” Hirsch said. “We improve their lives, their family's lives, and our whole community, and we improve community safety – and we really work hard for the betterment of society.”
Also being honored Tuesday was Judge-elect Soma Syed, who served as the president of the bar association last year.
Syed, coming off a successful election in the race for Civil Court judge, thanked the members of the bar association for putting their faith in her during what was a trying time to lead.
“This is home, despite being part of so many other bar associations,” Syed said.
The judge-to-be also presented two young law professional’s with the association’s Faith E. O’Neal Scholarship – Aleksandra Aronova, a third year law student at Pace Law School, and Nicole P. Purdee, a second year law student at Hofstra Law School each won the $2,500 scholarship.
