The Western San Bernardino County Bar Association held an awards and installation ceremony Oct. 6, at the DoubleTree hotel in Ontario.
The association awarded the Jennifer Brooks Lawyer of the Year award to employment litigator Daren Lipinsky, the Charles Althouse Lifetime Achievement Award to to Chief Deputy District Attorney Jill Gregory and the Legal Assistant of the Year award to University of La Verne, College of Law, Registrar and Director of Academic Affairs Evelyn De Anda-Cabrera.
Making history
Outgoing President Michael Scafiddi handed the microphone over to new association President Kareem Aref, 29, the youngest president and the first Arab-American, Muslim-American and Egyptian-American president in the WSBCBA’s history.
Lawyer of the Year
Lipinsky has worked in the Inland Empire for 25 years, prosecuting all types of employment discrimination, harassment and wrongful termination. He started the firm Rizio Lipinsky with Greg Rizio, who first met him on opposing counsel. He’s been named one of the Top 100 Trial Lawyers in America by the National Trial Lawyers organization and as one of the Top Lawyers in the Inland Empire by Inland Empire Magazine every year since 2010. The rating service Super Lawyers included him in their rankings, and the Consumer Attorneys of Inland Empire awarded him with the William M. Shernoff Trial Lawyer of the Year Award this year.
Attorney Bill Shapiro said Jennifer Brooks, the namesake of the award, stood for everything that was good, both in a lawyer and a person. The award is given out to people known to have the “Five Cs:” compassion, civility, courage, confidence and candor, and Lipinsky was the epitome of each of those traits, Shapiro said. Shapiro praised Lipinsky’s attention to detail and memory of cases.
“We’re finally recognizing one who is the best of us, and the highest compliment that I can give to anyone in the Inland Empire is, Jennifer Brooks, in looking down, will be as proud to have her name associated with his as he is to have his associated with hers,” Rizio, Lipinsky’s partner, said.
Lipinsky thanked the bar association for the award, his wife for the last 28 years, his parents for their hard work to give him a better life, his paralegal of 24 years and Rizio. He said his practice with Rizio focuses on civility, honor and caring about clients, and that every day he gets to represent the Davids against the Goliaths.
“One word of advice my parents gave me, by the way, to all the young people out there, is to treat everybody like you’re going to see them again, because you probably will,” Lipinsky said.
Lifetime Achievement
Gregory has worked at the District Attorney’s Office, starting at the Barstow District, since 2005. She was promoted to Supervising Deputy District Attorney in 2016, and she has coordinated the San Bernardino County High School Mock Trial tournament every year since 2007. She was recently promoted to Chief Deputy District Attorney.
San Bernardino Court Commissioner Carrie Halgrimson said Gregory has done 44 trials, 14 of them murder, and that she is known to take cases that need special handling.
“Jill’s abilities as a lawyer are only surpassed by her character,” Halgrimson said.
Gregory said she likes a good clean fight as a prosecutor, and that she learned early on that attorneys must never waver from their ethical responsibilities. Her beginning assignment in the small Barstow office made her realize you could not burn any bridges.
“Your reputation is all you have in this business, and you have to protect it every day,” Gregory said.
Legal Assistant of the Year
De Anda-Cabrera became a paralegal in 2006, and joined the University of La Verne as academic affairs coordinator in 2010. She handles the college’s calendar, manages California Bar certifications, confers Juris Doctorate degrees and is the liaison between the college and the State Bar of California. She also coordinates the college’s Moot Court and Mock Trial competitions.
Attorney Lauren Vogt said De Anda-Cabrera, whom she knew as a La Verne student, both carried the show and was the shoulder to cry on for many students. Vogt brought testimony from other alumni, who said De Anda-Cabrera was the school’s pillar, and made them feel like part of a family.
College of Law Dean Kevin Marshall praised De Anda-Cabrera’s work ethic, saying she would schedule meetings at 7 a.m., and work until 11 p.m.
De Anda-Cabrera thanked the bar association for the award and her family for their support.
“(The award) comes at the perfect time, because it reminds me my work really matters,” she said. She said she is truly blessed to see her students’ transformation, and that the award is just the cherry on top of her love for the job.
County Supervisor Janice Rutherford brought declarations to accompany each award.
Presidents’ remarks
Scafiddi, in his outgoing remarks, said he was proud of establishing the We Care 2020 program, which gathered thousands of dollars that the WSBCBA passed out in grants to help lawyers overcome economic challenges brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic.
“I’m proud we did that under my watch, I’m really proud,” he said.
He encouraged every attorney to practice “compassionate lawyering,” and to treat their clients beyond the case work. If you want to be a great lawyer, you have to change lives, Scafiddi said.
Aref said the bar association is made by the attendance and participation of the lawyers in it, and that he wanted to focus on mentorship, including with University of La Verne students, during his term. He said that attorneys are on the front line of protecting individual’s rights.
“(Being an attorney) is about choosing to do what’s right, over choosing to do what’s easy. It’s about making sure that the rule of law is upheld, so that in this country, we don’t have to worry about the things that we are seeing across the world,” Aref said.
