Queens County Bar Association celebrates 150th anniversary serving ‘The World’s Borough’

The Queens County Bar Association celebrated its status as one of the country’s oldest bar associations at its 150th anniversary ceremony at Queens County Supreme Court in Jamaica on Thursday. 

The event marked the milestone for the bar association and honored the Golia family with the Legacy Award for their multi-generational commitment to the court system.

In welcoming attendees, QCBA President Joshua Katz touted the organization’s status as the fourth-oldest bar association in New York State, and claimed to his knowledge it ranked among the 16 oldest nationwide.

The setting, speakers, and honorees of the event all served to underscore the bar association’s deep ties to the Queens court systems. 

The second-in-command administrator of the state court system, Chief Administrative Judge Joseph A. Zayas, who previously served as the Queens Supreme Court administrative judge, commended the QCBA for pre-dating several other regional bar associations and working as partners to reduce backlogs and expand access to justice.

Zayas emphasized the vital role of lawyers and judges as “society’s problem solvers” and “foot soldiers of the Constitution.”

“Today more than ever, the voice of lawyers, the leadership of lawyers, is needed, and that is why the founding of the Queens Bar Association should be celebrated with the fervor and the robustness that we are doing today,” Zayas said.

Supreme Court Justice Joseph Risi, a past president of the bar association, noted that 14 current judges served on the QCBA board of directors.

Other speakers dug into the history of the bar association and court to describe the bar association’s founding.

According to bar records, the association was founded on June 30, 1876, when a group of attorneys sent a letter to the legal community in Queens to convene them together. A month later, they met at the Garden City Hotel on Long Island to inaugurate the bar association with a lavish meal consisting of “green turtle soup, fish, roast vegetables salad dessert, fruit, punch and coffee.”

Attorney Kristen Dubowski Barnhart, the past QCBA president, went deeper into historical trivia about the bar association. QCBA held its first official meeting in its new headquarters in the Supreme Court courthouse in May 1939 before the bar association had its own building.

At that point, the city provided the association with a large, decorated meeting room on the first floor of the courthouse, along with a small ante-room that served as its office. The association was so grateful, Dubowski said, that it paid for a fireplace it imported from England that cost approximately $250, which would be over $6,000 adjusted for inflation. It still sits in what is now the office of Supreme Court Justice Carmen Velasquez.

As part of the ceremony, Queens Assembly Member David Weprin presented an official New York State Assembly proclamation commemorating the anniversary to President Joshua Katz and the QCBA Board of Directors.

The ceremony concluded with the presentation of the Legacy Award to four members of the Golia family, a multigenerational group of judges and court administrators, which recognized their collective total of nearly 130 years of public service in Queens County.

Retired Supreme Court Justices James and Joseph Golia, Second Department Associate Justice Donna-Marie Golia and Queens County Civil Court Court Attorney Michael Golia accepted the awards.

“That’s what legacy is all about,” Katz said. 

Donna-Marie Golia was overcome with emotion as she gave a speech on behalf of the family, sharing her gratitude that her dad and uncle came from parents with very little education to become engineers, then practicing attorneys, and then were elected as justices of the Supreme Court of the state of New York. 

“I fear that I cannot put into words how much this day really means to the Golia family,” she said.

Photo by Ramy Mahmoud Assemblymember David Weprin, front left, presents a proclamation honoring the QCBA’s 150th anniversary.Photo by Ramy Mahmoud Attorney Kristen Dubowski Barnhart, past QCBA presidentPhoto by Ramy Mahmoud Queens County Clerk Audrey PhefferPhoto by Ramy Mahmoud Photo by Ramy Mahmoud Photo by Ramy Mahmoud Supreme Court Justice Joseph Risi, a past president of the bar associationPhoto by Ramy Mahmoud Queens County Supreme Court Administrative Judge Marguerite A. GraysPhoto by Ramy Mahmoud Chief Administrative Judge Joseph A. ZayasPhoto by Ramy Mahmoud Retired Queens County Surrogate Court Judge Loiis D. LaurinoPhoto by Ramy Mahmoud