April 28, 2009
The
11th Annual Ronald H. Brown Dinner held on April 3, 2009 was hosted
by the Black Law Students Association (BLSA), the Asian Pacific
American Law Students Association (APALSA), the Latin American Law
Students Association (LALSA) and the South Asian Law Students
Association (SALSA). The venue for this function was the
Sheraton LaGuardia East Hotel in Flushing New York. All four
honorees were distinguished St. John’s School of Law
Alumni.
Assad Siddiqi ’01 an associate at Walder Hayden & Brogran, P.A.
was honored by SALSA. Committed to diversity in the legal
profession, Mr. Siddiqi currently serves as Vice President of the
Muslim Bar Association of New York. Mr. Siddiqi noted that he
was honored to be recognized as this year’s honoree and fondly
recalled that as a law student he introduced past SALSA honoree,
Judge Denny Chin of the United States Court for the Southern
District of New York in 2000. Mr. Siddiqi applauded the
Ronald H. Brown Center for playing a critical role in addressing
minority issues on a national and local spectrum
The LALSA honoree, Ricardo J. Cata ’75, who immigrated to the
United States from Cuba in the early 1960s and through his
education and applied effort rose to become the Managing Partner at
Wilson Elser Moskowitz Edelman & Dicker LLP. During his
award acceptance speech, Mr. Cata expressed his pride in St. John’s
Law for continuing to encourage the Ronald H. Brown Center to
address issues of diversity and social injustice. Mr. Cata
noted that he “likes to see diverse groups coming together with
different points of view working towards the same thing.” – a clear
testament to the varied audience in attendance the evening of the
dinner.
It was truly fitting that John A. Rogers ’96, a Partner at Herrick
Feinstein LLP and the Founding President of APALSA while attending
St. John’s Law was this year’s honoree. Mr. Rogers reflected
upon his education at St. John’s Law and noted that he was advised
by 3L students to be diligent in his studies and to do well.
This impromptu mentoring fostered the idea to formalize APALSA for
the benefit of present and future students. Mr. Rogers
remarked that St. John’s always encouraged students to become
involved and “the key to the Law School’s upward trajectory is to
have more alumni involved in student affairs. Hence, when
approached to be this year’s honoree he jumped at the chance”
He also noted that as a member of his firm’s hiring committee he
is, “trying to push St. John’s as much as possible.”
The Black Law Students Association honored Fred Thompson ’58
who, in addition to being a St. John’s Law graduate, is the Founder
and Executive Director of the Colgate Women’s Games. During
his career Mr. Thompson served in private practice, as a JAG
attorney, staff counsel for the IRS and as an attorney for a media
powerhouse, but truly defined himself through his avocation for
coaching youth sports. Putting the community’s needs ahead of
his own, Mr. Thompson stepped away from the day-to-day practice of
law to help fill a void in women’s athletics – the result being the
formation of the Colgate Women’s Games. He articulated his
belief in his career decisions from the podium when he delivered
the inspirational message for the students and alumni in attendance
“be true to yourself - the expectations others have for you should
only be secondary to the expectations you should have for
yourself.”
The mission of the Ronald H. Brown Center for Civil Rights and
Economic Development is to engage in legal studies, research and
projects focusing on issues that affect the lives of
under-represented peoples while simultaneously educating law
students to be leaders on issues of racial, economic, and social
justice.