Dean Patricia Salkin Receives the Ruth G. Schapiro Award
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Dean Patricia Salkin Receives the Ruth G. Schapiro Award
February 3, 2016Dean Patricia Salkin is the 2016 recipient of the Ruth G. Schapiro Award, given by the Committee on Women in the Law of the New York State Bar Association, and presented at the annual meeting on January 29, 2016 in New York. The award honors a member of the Association who has made a noteworthy contribution to the concerns of women through pro bono services, writing, service to the bar associations or community organizations or other such endeavors.
“Dean Salkin is a woman who embodies the spirit of the Ruth G. Shapiro Award,” said Ellen G. Makofsky (Makofsky & Associates), co-chair of the Committee on Women in the Law. “The Committee on Women in the Law is honored to be able to recognize and highlight Patricia Salkin’s many efforts on behalf of women.”
The award was presented to Dean Salkin by NYSBA President David P. Miranda who stated, “The Ruth G. Schapiro Award is a remarkable honor given in honor of a remarkable woman. Patty Salkin has been a long and devoted member of the Bar Association. She has been and is a leader working to advance the status of women in the legal profession through her scholarship, service and her work in the community….Time and again she has been the go to person for getting things done in the Bar, in academia and in her community. It is my honor and privilege to present this award to Patty Salkin.”
Salkin is the Dean of Touro Law Center and Interim Provost of the Touro College Graduate and Professional Divisions. Active in the leadership of the New York State Bar Association (including past service in the House of Delegates, chair of a committee, section and several high profile task forces), the American Bar Association (including service in the House of Delegates, chair of a section, and numerous Presidential appointments) and the American Association of Law Schools (where she currently services on the fourteen member Deans’ Forum Steering Committee and chairs the Committee on Sections), she lends an important voice to legal education reform as well as to cutting edge and complex issues facing the legal profession.
Dean Salkin has consistently worked to advance the status of women in the legal profession through her scholarship (including editing a book on Women Trailblazers in the Law published by the ABA), her service (e.g., service as a liaison to the ABA Commission on Women in the Law, service to the Capital District Women’s Bar Association and participation in the Suffolk County Women’s Bar Association) and in her community (e.g. most recently through the establishment of the country’s first “Justice Patch Program” with the Girl Scouts of Suffolk County, and a founding member and vice chair of the Long Island Women’s Collaborative).
A nationally recognized authority on land use and zoning law, Salkin is a graduate of the University at Albany and Albany Law School where she served for more than two decades including as Associate Dean, Director of the Government Law Center and the Raymond & Ella Smith Distinguished Professor of Law.
Dean Salkin stated, “I am truly honored to receive this award. In my mind there is no more meaningful recognition from this association than the Ruth Schapiro Award. I am humbled and promise to honor the responsibility that comes with receiving this award – to always do more and do better for women in the profession.”
The award is named for the late Ruth G. Schapiro, a nationally regarded tax lawyer, who was the first woman partner at Proskauer. Active in the State Bar Association, she was the first chair of the Committee on Women in the Law, chair of the Tax Section and the Finance Committee, and one of the first women to serve on the Executive Committee. She died in 1991. The Ruth G. Schapiro Award was created in her honor in 1992.
Professor Eileen Kaufman, a fellow Schapiro recipient, stated, “In every aspect of her being, Dean Salkin embodies the attributes enshrined in the Ruth G. Schapiro award. She actively supports women by creating opportunities for their advancement, she plays a leadership role in local, state and national professional organizations and uses those platforms to enhance the status of women in the profession; and she serves as a role model for countless students and faculty and lawyers who benefit from her wise counsel and encouragement. She leads by example and truly embodies the nobility of the profession.”
Other past recipients of the Ruth G. Schapiro include the Hon. Judith S. Kaye, Hon. Sondra Miller, Hon. Evelyn Frazee, Hon. Joan S. Kohout, and many other distinguished men and women.
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