On November 27, 2024, the Federal Bar Council held its Thanksgiving Luncheon. The event, which has been an annual highlight of the Council’s calendar for over 60 years, was held at Cipriani on 42nd Street. The inimitable Margie Berman and Larry Krantz, co-chairs of the Thanksgiving Luncheon Committee, hosted the event with warmth – and rhyme!
Seth Levine, president of the Federal Bar Foundation, reported on the state of the Federal Bar Foundation and its admirable public service. Frank Wohl, chair of the Nominating Committee, led the installation of the new officers, trustees and directors of the Federal Bar Council and Federal Bar Foundation.
Council President Emeritus Sharon Nelles was awarded the Federal Bar Council Eagle by President Shawn Patrick Regan. After thanking the leadership of the Federal Bar Council and Federal Bar Council Foundation, Nelles recognized this year’s recipients of the Council’s Thurgood Marshall Award for pro bono service: George Soussou (rising star) and Helaine Barnett. Nelles then presented the Council’s Emory Buckner Medal for Outstanding Public Service to the luncheon’s honoree: the Honorable P. Kevin Castel, U.S. District Judge for the Southern District of New York.
Judge Castel’s acceptance speech was filled with thanks for the people who have shaped his life and career – from his grandparents and parents to his wife, Mary Noe, to his teachers and mentors at Xavier High School, St. John’s School of Law, and Cahill Gordon & Reindel LLP. Judge Castel extolled the talents and dedication of his colleagues on the federal bench. He then regaled the audience with the extraordinary story of Jerry Doyle, an Assistant U.S. Attorney and partner at Cahill Gordon who, starting at age 65, devoted the next 11 years to the pro bono representation of over 4,000 criminal defendants in Barnstable County, Massachusetts, helping to shape a more equitable and humane judicial system along the way. “So my message to you,” Judge Castel exhorted, “is if and when family, health, and finances permit, the remedy for a lawyer in search of greater meaning, greater fun, and less stress is to channel your inner Jerry Doyle!” He concluded, “My present job is my ‘Jerry Doyle’ job.”