From the President, June 2022

Dolores Gebhardt, President Westchester County Bar Association

Inaugural Address

Before I begin, I want to thank my little family…my husband, Silverio Mazzella, and my elder daughter, Nora Berger. With them tonight are my dear friends, Guy and Susan Sirna. You have already met my younger daughter, Jennifer Berger, who sang our National Anthem from Spain. She is currently appearing on the Celebrity Beyond cruise ship. As always, my parents, Robert and Mary Gebhardt, have the best seats in the house.

I also thank my partners at Goldschmidt & Genovese, Sylvia Goldschmidt, Donna Genovese, and Kathleen Donelli, for their unwavering support. Ladies, I hope the following sentiment adequately expresses my love and gratitude for all you have done for me: See you next year!

When I made my exodus from Manhattan and came to work in Westchester County in 2000, I didn’t know a single attorney here. I was a shy and introverted labor and employment lawyer. Twenty-two years later, I stand here before you because of three brilliant, generous women who became my mentors. I am fortunate indeed that all three are in this room. The first is Sylvia Goldschmidt, who took me in as a foundling 22 years ago and persevered, despite incredible odds and through sheer force of will, to transform me into a matrimonial attorney. The second is Kathleen Donelli, who taught me how to fish and has been trying for 20 years, with limited success, to get me to curb my slight tendency to lose my temper. The third is the incomparable living legend, the Honorable Sondra Miller, who gave me the best compliment I have ever received: “You would have made a great law secretary.” Coming from Judge Miller, that is high praise indeed. Just to be in her orbit is a privilege. I try every day to be like you, but I am a pale imitation. I would not be where I am today without the love, support, and inspiration of these three mentors, friends, and sisters.

Speaking of sisters, where would I be without the love and support of my dear friends, my peeps, the Westchester Women’s Bar Association, who have come out tonight in force to cheer me on. Ladies: I never forget where I came from!

I would be remiss if I failed to acknowledge and thank my peeps at the White Plains Bar Association, where I had the privilege of serving recently on the nominations committee.

If there were a prize for the attendees who came from the furthest distance away to be with me tonight, it would be my dear friends Donna Frosco and her husband Dunstan Gotham, who travelled all the way from England! Thank you, my dear friends!

And now, on with the show.

Maya Angelou once said, “If you’re always trying to be normal, you will never know how amazing you can be.” The last two-plus years have been anything but normal, both for this Association, and for us as human beings. Despite the isolation foisted upon us during the darkest days of the COVID pandemic, the WCBA recognized immediately that being normal would not work. We rose to the challenge, created new ways of doing business, and proved that we are amazing. We had outstanding leadership in Wendy Marie Weathers and the Honorable James Hyer. Our intrepid Executive Director, Isabel Dichiara, met the challenge head-on and hosted countless Zoom meetings and programs. Our free or very low-cost CLE programs quickly became an essential lifeline to you, our members. Thanks to Wendy, Jim, Isabel, and our dedicated WCBA staff, we not only survived—we prospered. We owe you a debt of gratitude!

Hopefully, we’re now starting to come out of this thing, although there are, and will continue to be, a few bumps in the road. Will we return to the way we used to do things? No. We learned from the pandemic that the old way may not be the best, or the most efficient way. This Association will forge a new normal, starting here, starting now. We will do it by building on our successes during the pandemic. The greatest of those successes were the collaborative relationships we created or extended with our colleagues in other bar associations. For example, in 2020 when I was chairing the Community Recovery Task Force, Kim Berg, the chair of the WWBA Labor and Employment Law Committee, and Hon. Kyle McGovern, chair of the WCBA Labor and Employment Committee, collaborated on a list of Frequently Asked Questions for employers and employees addressing their respective rights and obligations concerning COVID. Since then, the two Committees have continued to present jointly sponsored highly successful CLE programs.

We are now about to launch a new Task Force focused on Attorney Well-Being and the Post-COVID Practice of Law. Created by our Immediate Past President, the Honorable James Hyer, and led by President-Elect Andrew Schriever and Treasurer Brian Cohen, the Task Force will examine how law is practiced in Westchester County and will propose concrete recommendations to improve it. The Task Force’s members will include representatives from other bar associations, the bench, the public sector, and academia.

This is a perfect segue to my Stronger Together Initiative. What is it? How will it work? I will show you, right now.

Will everyone here who is a member of the Westchester Women’s Bar Association, please stand and remain standing. Members of the Westchester Black Bar Association, please stand. White Plains Bar Association, please stand. Justice Brandeis Law Society, stand up. Columbian Lawyers, stand up. Society of Irish American Lawyers, stand up. Hudson Valley Hispanic Bar Association, stand up. Northern Westchester Bar Association, stand up. Yonkers Bar Association, Mount Vernon, New Rochelle, Eastchester, Mamaroneck, Port Chester/Rye, stand up. If you are a member of any bar association I have not named, stand up. If there is an attorney in the room still sitting, stand up. Give yourselves a big hand because YOU are the charter members of my Stronger Together Initiative.

Each bar association has its specific constituency and mission, but we have more in common than we have differences. We will forge this new normal together by acknowledging our common goals and by continuing and enhancing the collaborative relationships that began during the pandemic. More CLEs, more joint events, more joint sponsorships, more working together for the common good, because we are all in this together, and we have proved that we are stronger together.

To that end, never again do I want to hear the terms “specialty bar,” “local bar” or “baby bar.” The word is affinity. We are affinity bar associations that will move into a new day with collaboration and with respect.

I am uniquely qualified to accomplish this task, because I am the first person to be the president of the White Plains Bar Association, the Westchester Women’s Bar Association, and now the Westchester County Bar Association. It is my fervent hope that I will not be the last.

I have already put the Stronger Together Initiative to work in an area involving my own practice area, matrimonial and family law. The Honorable Victor Grossman, the Supervising Judge for the Westchester Matrimonial Part, has agreed to re-establish periodic meetings with matrimonial attorneys designated by five affinity bar associations, which I dubbed the “heads of the five families.” We have already had our first meeting via Zoom. This direct line of communication between the bench and the bar will be of mutual benefit to all.

Among the significant challenges we affinity bars face is how to attract, retain and engage younger attorneys as members. They are our future. We must do this to survive. We can and we will. We need to expand our service to the bench, the government, and the citizens of Westchester. We can and we will. We need to recognize our common goals while still maintaining what makes each affinity bar association unique. We can and we will. Do I have all the answers? No, I do not. Together, we will find the answers, and together, we will forge a new path. And that, my friends, is the Stronger Together Initiative. This is just the beginning. Stay tuned.

I leave you tonight with a quote from Walt Disney: “The only way to begin is to stop talking and start doing.” Now I will stop talking, and tomorrow, I will start doing. Goodnight, and stay safe.