{"id":259396,"date":"2026-06-08T17:13:17","date_gmt":"2026-06-08T17:13:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/259396\/"},"modified":"2026-06-08T17:13:17","modified_gmt":"2026-06-08T17:13:17","slug":"columbian-lawyers-association-of-brooklyn-hold-55th-annual-installation-dinner-dance","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/259396\/","title":{"rendered":"Columbian Lawyers Association of Brooklyn hold 55th annual installation dinner dance"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>\t\t\t\t<img width=\"1200\" height=\"800\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/Mario-D.-Romano-with-his-wife-and-his-son-and-daughter.jpg\" class=\"crop-center wp-post-image\" alt=\"four dressed up people, with one woman holding flowers\" decoding=\"async\" fetchpriority=\"high\"   title=\"Columbian Lawyers Association of Brooklyn hold 55th annual installation dinner dance 1\"\/>\t\t\t<\/p>\n<p>Mario D. Romano, with his wife, son, and daughter at the Columbian Lawyers Association of Brooklyn\u2019s installation dinner dance.<\/p>\n<p>Photo by Ramy Mahmoud<\/p>\n<p>The <a href=\"https:\/\/clabklyn.org\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">Columbian Lawyers Association of Brooklyn<\/a> held its 55th annual installation dinner dance in Brooklyn last week.\n<\/p>\n<p>Over 300 people, including past presidents of the association, attended the event, which was held at El Caribe on Strickland Avenue on June 5. The occasion honored the work of outgoing president Mario D. Romano while welcoming the installation of Grace Borrino, who now leads the Italian-American bar association.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt has been my privilege to serve as president this past year. The love and support I felt from my colleagues, friends, and fellow Columbians was just incredible,\u201d Romano said.\n<\/p>\n<p>Borrino, the daughter of Italian immigrants, addressed the audience about becoming the organization\u2019s new president while thanking her family for her success.\n<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThis organization is not just one person,\u201d she said. \u201cIt is the camaraderie amongst the executive committee and past presidents and who each support one another to ensure that this organization continues in a way that would make Judge [Anthony] Cutrona incredibly proud.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Mark A. Longo was presented with the prestigious Honorable Anthony J. Cutrona Award.\u00a0\n<\/p>\n<p>The Columbian Lawyers Association of Brooklyn was founded in 1966 by Hon. Frank J. Pino and a group of Italian-American lawyers and judges who sought to foster professional connections and support within the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.amny.com\/law\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">legal community<\/a>. Today, it provides legal education, networking opportunities and events while celebrating its Italian-American heritage.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>More than 50 years after its founding, it\u2019s regarded as one of NYS\u2019s most active and influential bar associations.\u00a0\n<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-137852841\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/Grace-M.-Borrino-with-her-her-husband-and-her-son-and-daughter.jpg\" alt=\"a family dressed up at a dinner dance\" width=\"700\" height=\"467\" title=\"Columbian Lawyers Association of Brooklyn hold 55th annual installation dinner dance 2\"  \/>Grace M. Borrino, with her husband, son and daughter.Photo by Ramy Mahmoud <img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-137852851\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/MARK-A.-LONGO.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"700\" height=\"467\" title=\"Columbian Lawyers Association of Brooklyn hold 55th annual installation dinner dance 3\"  \/>Mark A. LongoPhoto by Ramy Mahmoud <img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-137852844\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/Christopher-Caputo-and-MARK-A.-LONGO.jpg\" alt=\"two men wearing dark suits\" width=\"700\" height=\"467\" title=\"Columbian Lawyers Association of Brooklyn hold 55th annual installation dinner dance 4\"  \/>Christopher Caputo and Mark A. Longo. Photo by Ramy Mahmoud  <img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-137852845\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/DSC_5983.jpg\" alt=\"group of people dressed up for a party\" width=\"700\" height=\"467\" title=\"Columbian Lawyers Association of Brooklyn hold 55th annual installation dinner dance 5\"  \/>More than 50 years after its founding, the Columbian Lawyers Association of Brooklyn is regarded as one of NYS\u2019s most active and influential bar associations. Photo by Ramy Mahmoud <img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-137852848\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/Gregory-T.-Cerchione-and-Grace-M.-Borrino-and-Steven-Bamundo.jpg\" alt=\"woman in red dress holding flowers with two men in suits at her side\" width=\"700\" height=\"467\" title=\"Columbian Lawyers Association of Brooklyn hold 55th annual installation dinner dance 6\"  \/>Gregory T. Cerchione, Grace M. Borrino, and Steven BamundoPhoto by Ramy Mahmoud <img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-137852849\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/Hon-Carmen-Pacheco-and-Hon-Lawrence-Knipel-and-Judge-patrick-Hayes-Torres.jpg\" alt=\"woman dressed in black and two men in suits\" width=\"700\" height=\"467\" title=\"Columbian Lawyers Association of Brooklyn hold 55th annual installation dinner dance 7\"  \/>Hon Carmen Pacheco, and Hon Lawrence Knipel, and Judge Patrick Hayes Torres. Photo by Ramy Mahmoud <img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-137852850\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/Hon-Nancy-Sunshine-and-Hon.-Jeffrey-Sunshine-and-Dr-Regina-DiGiovanna.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"700\" height=\"467\" title=\"Columbian Lawyers Association of Brooklyn hold 55th annual installation dinner dance 8\"  \/>Hon Nancy Sunshine and Hon. Jeffrey Sunshine, and Dr Regina DiGiovannaPhoto by Ramy Mahmoud<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Mario D. Romano, with his wife, son, and daughter at the Columbian Lawyers Association of Brooklyn\u2019s installation dinner&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":259397,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[37],"tags":[98,100940,2710,100941,9,24,63,122,124,123],"class_list":["post-259396","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-queens","tag-brooklyn","tag-columbian-lawyers-association-of-brooklyn","tag-law","tag-lawyers-in-brooklyn","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-nyc","tag-queens","tag-queens-headlines","tag-queens-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/259396","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=259396"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/259396\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/259397"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=259396"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=259396"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=259396"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}