Nassau County Bar Association’s 110th President
          
(Mineola, NY) Marian C. Rice, a partner and chair of the Attorney Liability Practice Group at L’Abbate, Balkan, Colavita & Contini, L.L.P., Garden City, has been installed as the 110th president of The Nassau County Bar Association (NCBA), the largest suburban bar association in the country, at the Bar’s headquarters in Mineola. Rice replaces Susan Katz Richman, whose one-year term ended May 31, 2012. Rice is the first NCBA President and one of the few attorneys on Long Island who concentrates her law practice on the representation of attorneys and risk management for lawyers. 
           
In addition, the following attorneys were installed as NCBA officers to one-year terms: President-Elect Peter J. Mancuso, an assistant district attorney with the Nassau County District Attorney’s Office; 1st Vice President John P. McEntee, partner at Farrell Fritz, P.C.; 2nd Vice President Steven J. Eisman, senior partner at Abrams, Fensterman et al, Lake Success; and Treasurer Martha Krisel, Chief Deputy County Attorney for Special Projects at Office of the Nassau County Attorney; and Secretary Steven G. Leventhal of  Leventhal Sliney & Mullaney, LLP, Roslyn.
 
Serving the Needs of Attorneys and the Community

Rice said during her term she will continue to support NCBA’s long-time commitment to provide legal services and education to the community, including free public seminars, the WE CARE Fund, the charitable arm of NCBA that assists children, the elderly and others in need through countless projects and donations; and the Volunteer Lawyers Project which provides pro bono legal services for the low-income community. She plans to continue her predecessors’ efforts to secure grants to fund the position of Director of Pro Bono Services at NCBA to oversee and coordinate all pro bono services provided to the public by the Bar Association. These include the award-winning Mortgage Foreclosure Pro Bono Project, free legal consultation clinics, joint ventures with the Coalition Against Domestic Violence and the program against human trafficking, as well as BOLD (Bridge Over Language Divides) Program, which provides legal information and guidance in foreign languages.
       
Rice will also focus on expanding NCBA’s Lawyer Referral Service to help residents quickly find qualified lawyers for legal representation. In addition, she would like to promote the use of NCBA’s Alternative Dispute Resolution Program to allow attorneys and their clients to use expeditious, time-saving and cost effective means to resolve disputes that might otherwise be litigated in the courts.
           
Among President Rice’s goals during her term is to present initiatives designed to simplify aspects of the practice of law in areas ranging from technology programs to standardization of court procedures to mentoring, ethical issues and internship relationships. She also plans to remain active in addressing proposed legislative statues and rules that affect the practice of law and lawyers’ clients. NCBA is currently reviewing proposals on the affirmations by attorneys in foreclosure actions and mandatory pro bono requirements for new attorneys.

Stellar Legal Career
 
Although Rice primarily represents attorneys in malpractice claims, she is often asked for advice on a wide range of topics that affect lawyers and the practice of law, including risk management, loss prevention, client grievances and ethics.  Currently a columnist for the ABA Law Practice Management Journal, Rice has authored materials for numerous publications and newsletters, including the New York Law Journal, the New York State Bar Journal and Nassau Lawyer. She has lectured the Professional Liability Underwriting Society, the ABA Standing Committee on Lawyer’s Professional Liability, the Nassau and Suffolk County Bar Associations, the New York State Bar Association, the New York City Bar and the American Conference Institute, as well as for various law firms, insurers and trade associations.

Marian Rice joined the Nassau County Bar Association in 1980, just after receiving her law degree from St. John’s University School of Law, and has been an active supporter of the Bar ever since.  In addition to her 6 years of service on the Executive Board, Rice also served as a Board Director, Chair of the Judiciary and Long Range Planning committees and Editor-in-Chief of the Nassau Lawyer, the official monthly newspaper. She is also a member of Nassau-Suffolk Trial Lawyers and the Suffolk County Bar Association.

On the national and state levels, Rice is currently serving a term as an ABA Presidential appointee to the American Bar Association Standing Committee on Lawyer’s Professional Liability and has been Chair of the New York State Bar Association – Committee for Insurance Programs since 2008.  She is also a member of the Professional Liability Underwriting Society, New York State Bar Association – Law Practice Management Committee and the Tort, Insurance and Compensation Law Section; the Defense Association of New York, and the Defense Research Institute. Rice was a NYSBA presidential appointee to the Task Force on Non-Lawyer Ownership and the Special Committee on Legal Specialization in New York.

From 1999 to 2003, Rice administered the Attorney Loss Prevention Hotline Service for the broker responsible for the NYSBA-sponsored professional liability insurer. From 1984 to 2000, she was a Governor-appointed member of the Council for the State University of New York Maritime College at Fort Schuyler.

Originally from Thomaston, Rice now lives in Center Moriches with her husband, Bob Aurigema, and their two dogs.

The Installation Ceremonies at the Nassau Bar’s headquarters in Mineola were sponsored by CBS Insurance Group and Champion Office Suites.
          
About the Nassau County Bar Association
Founded in 1899, the Nassau County Bar Association, with a membership of nearly 6,000 private and public attorneys, judges, legal educators and law students, is the largest suburban bar association in the country. NCBA demonstrates its commitment to the community by offering a variety of services for the public, including lawyer referral services, monthly mortgage foreclosure and senior citizen legal consultation clinics, judicial screening, public education programs and support for the Volunteer Lawyers Project, which provides much-needed free legal services for the indigent of Nassau County. For more information, call (516) 747-4070 (language translation available), email info@nassaubar.org, or visit www.nassaubar.org.