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AMISTAD Board Members with NBA Officers and the NYS Attorney General, Hon. Leticia James (2021)
AMISTAD is one of only two metro NY Affiliate members of the National Bar Association (The "NBA"), the oldest and largest Bar Association in the United States serving Black Attorneys. We encourage all of our members to join the NBA.
AMISTAD boasts members from the eastern most forks to the border and into NYC. Our members are a mixture of private practitioners and public servants - including members of the bench - in all stages of their careers.
Whether you are looking for mentorship or camaraderie, please join us for an event and inquire.
AMISTAD's 2025 Executive Committee
AMISTAD's Directors
Hon. Maxine S. Broderick
Hon. Maxine S. Broderick currently sits in Nassau County District Court and presides over misdemeanor and felony matters. Prior to joining District Court in
2018, Judge Broderick served as Hempstead Village Justice.
As a leader in the legal community, Judge Broderick is an Officer of the Nassau
County Bar Association, has served on the Board of the Nassau County Womens
Bar Association and is a past president of the
Amistad Long Island Black Bar Association.
Judge Broderick is a member of The Links, Incorporated (Eastern Shore NY Chapter) and the National Coalition of 100 Black Women
(Long Island Chapter).
Judge Broderick is a graduate of Sacred Heart Academy, Fordham University and Brooklyn Law School. She was admitted to practice in 2004.
Co-Executive Directors
The History of AMISTAD
The AMISTAD Long Island Black Bar Association was founded in 1996 and was created to foster community, professional development, and growth among attorneys of color in the Long Island area. As J. Stewart Moore, one of Amistad’s founding members has said, “Amistad is all about history.” This is demonstrated even in the organization’s name
"Le Amistad" was the name of the 1839 Spanish ship whose passengers were so famously memorialized in Steven Spielberg’s movie of the same name. In 1841, the United States Supreme Court ruled that the Africans aboard the Amistad had been illegally transported and held as slaves, and thus the Court ordered them freed. The Amistad survivors victoriously returned to Africa in 1842.
While many are familiar with this United States Supreme Court case involving the African passengers, some do not know that the Amistad ship itself first docked in Sag Harbor, Long Island before being transferred to Connecticut, becoming a part of local history.
AMISTAD seeks to continue the tradition of providing opportunities for networking, leadership, and professional growth to attorneys in the practice of law who work and/or live on Long Island.
AMISTAD actively provides supportive environments for law students, judges, and attorneys of color in all walks of the profession.
AMISTAD was formerly known as the AMISTAD Suffolk Black Bar Association before the organization expanded to both the Nassau and Suffolk regions. AMISTAD includes among its members judges, prosecutors, lawyers in private practice and in the public service, as well as students of the local law schools. We are proud of AMISTAD's history, and we look forward to many more years of continued growth and leadership.
If you are not already a member, click below to join us today.
