By Manny Frishberg, JTNews Correspondent
Aaron Kiviat and Aric Bomsztyk have been friends since childhood. Their lives have taken a parallel course since. Both are graduates of Mercer Island High School, both moved to New York where they both became lawyers, and each moved back to the Pacific Northwest in the last few years. Now they are co-chairing the Cardozo Society, spearheading what Bomsztyk refers to as the resurrection of the Jewish Federation of Greater Seattle’s group for Jewish attorneys around Puget Sound.
Cardozo Societies are found throughout the United States, and Seattle had an active one for many years. But, Kiviat explains, many of the active members have retired in recent years, and the organization had largely gone dormant.
When he was contacted by Gail Stagman, a former Cardozo Society co-chair, she asked, “‘What do you think about getting some young people involved?’” Kiviat said. “There wasn’t that vibrant energy in it anymore and she wanted to pass it on.”
Kiviat decided to split the commitment with Bomsztyk, who quickly signed on.
“I love being a lawyer and I love the Jewish community that I grew up in, so what a perfect combination,” Bomsztyk said.
They two spent several months working with their Federation liaison, Ariel Grossman, getting ready to unveil the revitalized Cardozo Society with a coming-out party in early November.
“We had about 75 attorneys there — but not just; there weren’t just attorneys; there were judges… I think there was a professor,” Bomsztyk said.
Though it’s known as a society, Cardozo is not all socializing.
“We’ve been co-sponsoring CLEs,” Bomsztyk said, referring to classes and workshops that award Continuing Legal Education credits. On Dec. 8, they organized and hosted their first CLE, examining the insanity defense in Washington State from a both Jewish and a legal perspective. Bomsztyk said they chose to talk about this in part because of Naveed Haq, the Jewish Federation gunman, who used the insanity defense at his trial, which ended in a hung jury.
Kiviat said one thing most people don’t realize is that defendants who win trials with an insanity defense don’t necessarily go free.
“Winning an insanity defense case really means a lifetime of incarceration in a mental hospital,” he said. “But a high-security mental hospital — not one with beautiful gardens. So winning is not really the same as getting a not guilty verdict.”
Kiviat attended The Evergreen State College in Olympia, then the Benjamin Cardozo School of Law in New York. He spent three years as an assistant district attorney in the Bronx County District Attorney’s Office, where he prosecuted narcotics and weapons cases, economic crimes and violent crimes. He is now with the law office of Geoffrey Burg, a criminal defense firm.
Bomsztyk did not go to law school right away after graduating from the University of Wisconsin. But he did go to New York.
“I lived there for three years,” he said, working in advertising before starting law school at Fordham University. After graduation he moved back to Washington State. He took the bar exam here and worked at his own law office before, as he said, “I came on board with these guys,” — these guys being the Seattle firm of Barokas, Martin and Thomlinson.
“Larry Barokas,” Bomsztyk said, “is an old Jewish attorney around town — people know him.”
Kiviat said Cardozo has gotten a good response, especially from younger attorneys.
“I’ve been hearing a lot more excitement about Cardozo,” he said. “There have been a lot of good ideas about what we want to do in the future.”
One is a brown-bag lunch set up with Attorney General Rob McKenna’s office.
“That,” Kiviat said, “should be very cool.”
One of the group’s goals, Kiviat said, is “to have a tikkun olam aspect and give Jewish attorneys in Washington have a channel to do some community work through the Federation, but as an attorney.”
Bomsztyk said the idea is to provide pro bono opportunities not just to individuals but in ways that would support the Jewish communal organizations, too, though nothing concrete has been planned.
Glassman said the Federation is now in a position to give the Cardozo Society the support to “make it a real resource that can really help people connect in their personal lives and aid them professionally.”
She said twice as many people came out to the November mixer than they expected.
“I just think that shows that when Aric and Aaron came to us and said we think there is a need for this,” she said, “I think they were right on.”
Glassman said they hope to create a way through the Cardozo Society to provide mentoring and internship opportunities to law students and newly minted lawyers with more senior attorneys.
“It’s difficult to navigate the complex legal world,” Glassman said. “One of the things we hope to do in the future is to create a Cardozo mentoring program that matches seasoned lawyers with up-and-coming lawyers or with law students, and help them navigate that legal world.”
A big change this year is that attorneys no longer need to make a $1,500 contribution to the Federation’s Community Campaign to be considered a member of the Cardozo Society. Glassman, the Federation liaison, said the requirement made the society too exclusive.
“We realized that was counter-
productive to the goal of connecting people,” she said. “We want to connect lawyers, whether they have the capacity to give that amount or not.”