(Mineola, NY) The Touro Law School team of third-year students Brian DiPentima of Westbury and Brandon Maharajh of Deer Park took top honors at the annual Nassau Academy of Law Hon. Elaine Jackson Stack Moot Court XXXI, held March 26, 2014 at the Nassau County Bar Association headquarters in Mineola. The team argued before a panel of distinguished judges that included Appellate Associate Justice Leonard B. Austin, NCBA President, Peter J. Mancuso; Dean of the Academy of Law, Supreme Court Justice – Matrimonial Part Sondra K. Pardes; NCBA Past President Marc Gann, founding partner of Collins, McDonald & Gann in Mineola; and the Hon. Elaine Jackson Stack (ret.), for whom the competition is named.
The Moot Court Finals Bench congratulates this year’s first place Touro Law School student team winners (from left) NCBA Past President Marc Gann, Hon. Leonard Austin, Hon. Sondra K. Pardes, Touro students Brian DePentima and Brandon Maharajh, Hon. Elaine Jackson Stack and NCBA President Peter Mancuso. Photo Credit: Nassau County Bar Association.
Brian DePentima also won the Justice Edward J. Hart Memorial Award for Best Oralist, named after the late litigation specialist and Justice of the Supreme Court, Appellate Division, Second Department. The Eugene S.R. Pagano Best Brief Award went to the St. John’s University School of Law team of Brian Adelmann, Arianna Efstathiou and Brian Eisner. A total of seven student teams competed this year, representing CUNY School of Law, Maurice A. Deane School of Law at Hofstra University, Touro and St. John’s.
Nassau County Bar Association
Founded in 1899, the Nassau County Bar Association consists of private and public attorneys, judges, legal educators and law students who demonstrate their commitment to the community by offering a variety of services for the public, including lawyer referral services, mortgage foreclosure, Sandy Recovery and senior citizen legal 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. The WE CARE Fund, a part of the NCBA’s charitable arm, assists children, the elderly and others in need, through countless projects and donations. For more information, call (516) 747-4070 (language translation available), email info@nassaubar.org, or visit nassaubar.org.
