Cosponsors Include Leading Accounting Firm Citrin Cooperman

WHITE PLAINS, New York, Jan. 23, 2007 – Westchester County’s attorneys now have an awards competition to call their own. 

The “Above the Bar Awards” will honor the best and brightest Westchester-based attorneys in several categories according to representatives from the award competition’s cosponsors, which include accounting firm Citrin Cooperman, the Westchester County Business Journal, Pace Law School, and Mahopac Bank.

Nominations in six categories will be accepted through Feb. 28 by clicking here. A panel of judges will finish its review in March, and the award winners will be announced at an April 26 gala event at the Judicial Institute at Pace Law School in White Plains.

The 2007 “Above the Bar Awards” categories include Most Promising Attorney under 35, Leading Environmental Attorney, Most Promising Pace Law Student, Most Socially Conscious Attorney, Best Law Office to Work In, and the Pace Setter Award, for all-around excellence in the legal profession in Westchester.

“Westchester County has an active and thriving legal profession which makes great contributions to the economy and provides valuable services to local businesses,” said Alan Badey, a partner at Citrin Cooperman’s White Plains office. “The awards program allows us to shine a spotlight upon these outstanding professionals and to honor excellence among them.”

Nominations will be judged by a panel of five, including Jeffrey Miller and Janet Johnson, Pace Law School professors; Alex Philippidis, editor-in-chief of the Westchester County Business Journal; Alex Matthiessen, president of Hudson Riverkeeper; and Gerald Stern, former administrator and counsel, Commission on Judicial Conduct.

“The Business Journal has initiated a number of competitions which recognize, support and encourage successful businesses and business people. Attorneys, their advice and counsel, are important to every business. That’s why this competition is so relevant and overdue in the business community,” says Dee DelBello, CEO of Westfair Communications Inc., and publisher of the Westchester County Business Journal. “We’ll do everything we can to ensure that this recognition for attorneys continues each year.”

For more information on the nominating process or to receive a nomination application, please contact Lorraine Herman at (914) 694-3600, ext. 3027 or click on www.westchestercbj.com. 

About Citrin Cooperman
Citrin Cooperman (www.citrincooperman.com), a Top 40 full-service accounting firm with more than $55 million in annual revenue, provides tax, accounting and consulting advice to a variety of clients in New York and New Jersey, with a special emphasis on professional services firms, restaurants, real estate, entertainment, food services, staffing and executive search firms. The firm, founded in 1979, has offices in midtown Manhattan, White Plains and Springfield, N.J.

About the Westchester County Business Journal
The Westchester County Business Journal, the only local business weekly publication in Westchester County, has been covering business news for more than 40 years. Business owners, partners, professionals and top executives find the relevant local business news and information in the Business Journal important to conducting their business.

About Pace University School of Law
Founded in 1976, Pace University School of Law has nearly 6,500 alumni/ae throughout the country. It offers full- and part-time day and evening JD programs on its White Plains, NY, campus. The School also offers the Master of Laws in Environmental Law and in Comparative Legal Studies. The School, which has one of the nation's top-rated environmental law programs, also offers the SJD program in that field. The School of Law is part of a comprehensive, independent, and diversified University with campuses in New York City and Westchester County. www.law.pace.edu. 

About Mahopac National Bank
Mahopac National Bank has branches in Dutchess, Putnam and Westchester counties. The bank is part of Tompkins Trust Co., a publicly traded holding company based in Ithaca that has more than $2 billion in assets.